It is my sincerest hope that my readers are enjoying these thoughts as much as I am.
The second stupid way the authors have identified that people think about God is:
GOD AS LITTLE
MARY SUNSHINE.
They begin their description with this mock prayer: O, Eternally-smiling One. Thou art more friendly than Mister Rogers. More sunny than Doris Day. Thou art the best little god anyone could ever have. Yes, put on your polarizers. It’s time to bask in the glorious light of Little Mary Sunshine. Everyone’s favorite kind of god. And why not?
He’s a hap-hap-happy deity. Hovering over you like an umbrella on a rainy day. You’ve got problems? Why worry? Why work at life? Little Mary Sunshine will take care of everything for you. Just relax. Catch some rays. But be careful. Prolonged exposure can be harmful. For Little Mary Sunshine is a god of illusions. A god devoid of substance.
This view of God masquerades as a simple, almost enviable, childlike faith. It may even resemble, in its purity, a standard worth aspiring to. But its resemblance is truly superficial.
This god is all love. But not real love. He nourishes, but does not discipline. He coddles, but does not upbraid. God has been homogenized of all dimension, pasteurized of all impurities, until he is bland and suitable for middle-class palates. This “divine” love has been rendered so simplistic, so comfortable, it is not real. It bears no relation to any of the complications we experience in life. How could a God this good be responsible for a world filled with such suffering and cruelty? It’s so hard to believe, many Mary Sunshine devotees deny the existence of evil whatsoever when what they should deny is this concept of God.
Others explain evil by believing in demons, devils, Darth Vader, or some other character in a cosmic comic book of right vs. wrong. Suddenly, our all-powerful God has a competitor. Who’s the real god anyway? Yet this is just a Pandor’s box of theological Band-Aids. All to protect a god that is too good. A god that defies our God-given sense of reason, because he has created all light and no shadow. This concept of God is not just intellectually unsatisfying, it is also emotionally crippling. Because Little Mary Sunshine is a god of fragile people, desperate people who need to escape the imperfections of life and the darker sides of themselves. This god we have created for ourselves is also a fragile god. He is decimated by wars. Abandoned after the senseless death of a child. His benevolence all too often feels like a lie. Yes, this is a god we have cursed.