Have you ever noticed all the things where God gets the blame? Maybe it is a tired phrase, but we keep throwing God under the bus. There are a lot of ways we do it. Here are a few of the more common ways.
Blaming God for killing or hurting people:
From The Independent -Americas “A Texas woman who stoned two of her children to death and seriously injured a third on Mother’s Day last year told psychiatrists she was driven to kill by a message from God and that she was sure they would rise again from the dead.”
From MSNBC.com “A man who rammed his truck into a woman’s vehicle on a highway early Friday told authorities he crashed into her while going more than 100 mph because God told him “she needed to be taken off the road.”
- “Hey God, are you okay? That looked painful.”
Blaming God to avoid sounding unspiritual: This happened a lot at Bible College. A student would come into the Dean of Students office and say something like “God is telling me to quit school…” which was a way of saying a number of things. Maybe they were saying they were overwhelmed and wanted to quit. Regardless of the reason, it was easier to blame God or Jesus and sound spiritual than to be a quitter and maybe thought of as lacking faith.
- “God, while your under there would you check to make sure the oil pan is okay? I hit a bump and thought it might have gotten scraped. Thanks!”
Blaming God for an extramarital affair: A couple of years ago, a guy threw God under the bus with this one. He said, “I’ve finally found the person God wanted me to marry.” He didn’t smirk or giggle after saying this. There were no cameras around. Ashton Kutcher didn’t run out to tell me I’d been Punk’d. He said it and he meant it.
- “Don’t get up. I’m going to put this thing in reverse.”
Blaming God to give weight to our opinions: God’s prophets aren’t just on the radio and television. They are in your church, too. These prophetic utterances usually begin with “God told me to tell you…” or, “Jesus wants me to tell you…” and then we get to hear about the things they don’t like or disagree with us about.
- “God, I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.”
Here are some thoughts to consider next time you have the urge to blame God.
- Do your thoughts, words, and actions look like Jesus?
- Are you trying to spiritualize your opinion to give it weight?
- If you’re not sure, would you be willing to earnestly pray for God to reveal your motives?
- If something needs saying, pray for the wisdom and courage to deal with the problem in a Christ-like way.
I think it is time we quit throwing God under the bus. What do you think?
Skin Ministries 
I’ve been tempted to start saying, “Damn you Buddha!!” or “For the love or Krishna!” just to see what happens.
I know I for one have absolutely gotten tired of hearing people say, “I heard God’s voice and he said….” Then they look at you and say, “Have you heard his sweet voice?” When you say no, you get that “tsk tsk sad child” look.
People throw God under the bus because it is easy. I have, many times. Even my pagan/athest-like friends will blame God, which makes me chuckle.
When people complain to me and say, “Well, it’s God’s fault!”, I just tell them to nut up or shut up. No, really…I do.
God doesn’t tell me things and leave the rest of you in the dark. That’s what I remind myself, that’s what you continually remind me. Christianity is practiced in community. OPEN communication within the Christian community could avoid alot of sin. Talking about our sins OPENLY prior to commision gives us the opportunity to look at them from a perspective other than our own. We aren’t encouraged to do this within the Christian community. We are shunned and judged for admitting we even think or consider doing something dark. If you had a brand new shiny motorcycle, I saw it and wanted it. I thought to myself, “you know I could just steal it, he leaves his keys laying around church all the time” . If I told you this , “Dave don’t leave your keys laying around or I’m going to steal your bike” the shock on your face, the tears that filled your eyes would be a deterrant to me as well as you would probably not let your keys out of your pocket. If that mother who stoned her children had felt her community loved her unconditionally, maybe she could have discussed the desire to stone her children prior to actually doing it. As it is, a woman who even uttered that she considered such a thing could expect that she herself would be figuratively stoned. People would be so aghast at her for admitting that she could even think of such a thing.. If the man having the affair felt “safe” enough to tell me prior to the affair, that he found the woman God always wanted him to marry, I might have counselled him, that it’s unfortunate you didn’t wait for her, now your only option for a holy choice is to honor the vow that you already made. If the man quitting bible college could feel safe enough to discuss his discouragement with me prior to quitting, I’d have an opportunity to address his discouragement, maybe help him study. We blame God for our choices because we are left so alone with them. With each other we are motivated to follow the rules and keep up a holy front, or be judged and shunned. We are all so sure of Gods’ love so we’ll blame him, we can’t admit it comes from us because they’ll withdraw their love from us.