Anger in When Bad Things Happen to Good People

When Kushner contrasts the all-powerful, parent-like image of God with his own notion of a more limited God who is not responsible for our misfortunes, the first advantages that he claims for his view have to do with anger and its justification.

"But … when we have met Job, when we have been Job, we cannot believe in that sort of [parent-like] God any longer without giving up our own right to feel angry, to feel that we have been treated badly by life." [page 44]

But with his own view of God: "We can be angry at what has happened to us, without feeling that we are angry at God. More than that, we can recognize our anger at life's unfairness, our instinctive compassion at seeing people suffer, as coming from God who teaches us to be angry at injustice and to feel compassion for the afflicted. Instead of feeling that we are opposed to God, we can feel that our indignation is God's anger at unfairness working through us, that when we cry out, we are still on God's side, and He is still on ours." [page 45]

I find this implication remarkable: A God who is not angry is not on Kushner's side, and Kushner cannot be on His.

I give my own views about anger and suffering elsewhere.