good god by jonny
	Saddam Hussein died recently and I think we're supposed to celebrate. This is because he was Bad. President Gerald Ford and singer James Brown also died, but because they were Good we're supposed to be sad. These days it's very important to remember who's Good and who's Bad. Speaking of Bad, I have a two year old, and most two year olds are considered Terrible. This is because they behave like drunken cavemen who grunt and yell when they want something. But even back when my terrible child was just a few months old I was often asked, “Is he a Good baby?” It took me a while to figure out that they were really asking how he slept. Good babies sleep without bothering their parents. Bad babies make their parents get up and take care of them. Now that he's older people are very quick to call him a “good boy” or to warn him against being “bad.” And they're not talking about how well he sleeps anymore; they're talking about the very core of who he is. My husband and I have been teaching him right from wrong, at least in terms of throwing objects and sharing, and when he does something he's not supposed to and I begin talking to him about it, he immediately recounts his past mistakes. Right now he's hung up on throwing Joseph from a nativity scene and coloring on his grandma's wall, two events that happened months ago. I can't seem to convince him that those things are forgiven and trying to be forgotten. To his little brain the slate is not clean and he has to confess all over again, many times a day. He's slowly learning to say “I'm sorry” and to accept our immediate forgiveness. But recently he messed up and someone responded to his sweet little “sorry” with a stern, “Don't do it again.” I think people who don't immediately accept a toddler's sincere apology have a problem. I think they grew up thinking of God all wrong. Maybe they grew up thinking of their earthly father as an image of God. There are a lot of wonderful dads out there, and I have one of them, but there's also lots of absent dads and a whole bunch of Bad dads. No matter what kind of father we have, if any, they're all flawed human beings like the rest of us and don't really hold a candle to the real thing. Maybe they grew up thinking that God judges the world and punishes the sinners. This can lead to a lot of debate about what sin is and who those sinners are, and nowadays many people see homosexuals as the biggest of them all. They're Really Bad. At my church there are people who've recently decided they can't worship with us anymore because our gay sisters and brothers are just as welcomed and loved and forgiven as the rest of us. The message of the gospel is radical and profound because it includes everyone. Folk singer Nanci Griffith has a song called “It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go,” and in it she tells different stories of bigotry. In one a father calls black people trash to his son, and her response is that “if we poison our children with hatred, then the hard life is all that they'll know.” Some of the people who've left my church did so because they feared for their children. They were afraid that their kids would see two men holding hands at church and they wouldn't know how to explain it to them. These are kids who live in New York City and are surrounded by the homeless, crack dealers and the occasional prostitute. Teaching our children to love and care for all of these people, including the gay couple at church, can only be Good. Or maybe they grew up thinking of God as quick to anger and slow to forgive, so that now they don't feel as loved as they are. There's a chance they secretly don't want others to feel love so easily either. They may view an ornery child as needing more punishment than necessary, forgetting about the power of that love. And maybe they don't forgive themselves as quickly as God does. Whatever the misunderstanding, I think our world is full of frustrated people who have given their Creator a few too many human characteristics instead of the other way around. God became a human being, but he was a Perfect one. Not one of us can fathom how good God is and how far His love goes. He loves the porn star as much as he loves the preacher; he loves the terrorists and presidents and soldiers and peace demonstrators and evil dictators and two year olds and homosexuals and bisexuals and heterosexuals alike. What we all have in common is how unworthy we are of this love, but it keeps being given to us anyway. Sometimes God is like a patient mother who refuses to give her children what they deserve. I was once asked to picture someone I hate being in Heaven right this minute. I don't have a hard time picturing Gerald Ford up there smiling with the saints and James Brown singing with the angels, but what matters more is how I feel at the thought of Saddam Hussein spending an eternity with God. Does it make Heaven less appealing, less fair? Or can I handle that kind of peace and reconciliation? I hope I'm not so small-souled as to be angry over another human's redemption. I hope none of us are.