Rabbi Kushner: An ‘Accommodation’ With God

Rabbi Harold Kushner has written a dozen books offering guidance from the Bible for living a life that matters. His best-known title is When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Although the book came out nearly 30 years ago, Kushner still hears from readers who find comfort within its pages.

“I feel just a little bit conflicted about the fact that it continues to resonate, because it means there are more people confronting new problems of suffering,” Kushner tells NPR’s Renee Montagne. “There’s always a fresh supply of grieving people asking, ‘Where was God when I needed him most?’ “

That’s a question Kushner himself confronted as a young father when his first-born child died, leading him to rethink his view of an omnipotent God.

“It just seemed so terribly unfair and it forced me to reconsider everything I’d been taught in seminary about God’s role in the world,” Kushner says. “It was shattering.”

He says people from a more traditional perspective have asked him whether he thought his son’s death was part of God’s plan. He says they said that going through the tragedy of a child’s loss prompted him to write his first book. But Kushner rejects that idea.

“If that were God’s plan, it’s a bad bargain,” Kushner says. “I don’t want to have to deal with a God like that.”

He says that if he had to face the fact that God was either all-powerful but not kind, or thoroughly kind and loving, but not totally powerful, he would rather compromise God’s power and affirm his love. Read Article