War’s suffering serves no discernible purpose

I read Michael Gerson’s commentary “Keep hold of faith, even in war,” April 20, with the hope that he would have something to say that might bolster a shaken faith. I was sorely disappointed.

He opens the article with the horrific story of the two men and a boy on the gallows in Auschwitz, when the question is asked, “Where is God?”

Reading further, he makes the shocking statement, “Our friends in Ukraine give their lives willingly.” Really? Does he think the mothers and their children who were murdered in the attacks on the train station and the shelter in the theater in Mariupol willingly went there to die? Or that the executed civilians and sexually assaulted women willingly accepted their fate? What point is he trying to make by that statement?

Gershon concludes with, “Even amid horror, some vital purpose is making itself known.” This vital purpose certainly has failed to make itself known to me. Are we to assume that this is all part of a divine plan and that’s why it is allowed to continue? What purpose could possibly be worth all this needless loss of life and suffering? Apparently, Gerson feels he has some inside knowledge of this vital purpose. I’m glad his faith isn’t shaken by all the horror. This untrained eye is still trying to come up with an answer to the original question.

Jeff Glikes

Troy