A middle-class mother of three proclaims enthusiastically,
“I know that God is real, because he is at work in my life. He has worked wonders in guiding me to find a great job, in helping me mother my children, and being a good wife. He speaks to me constantly, through his Word and his Spirit. I do not know how I could not believe, given how very real he is to me.”
Now, imagine a widower in the slums of Calcutta. She has been forced into prostitution so that her starving children might have something to eat. Her days are spent in miserable conditions, and she despises every minute of her ‘occupation’. Could this woman express sentiments like that of the prior woman?
If God is real, why is he real only to this middle-class woman?
Beyond Black and White 
Maybe he’s real and he’s a real jerk? This is probably the biggest thing that bothers me about theism. Children who were prayed for die of cancer, but God helped you find your lost car keys. Praise Jesus!
I do not deny that much of the Western world has a wrong view of God. They see Him as their servant, at their beck and call, to make their comfortable Western life more comfortable. They have ignored the truths presented in the Bible and have forgotten the essence of true religion – “Religion that is pure and undeflied is this before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27). What would cause someone to leave their comfortable home and go and serve that same widow in Calcutta as some of my friends are doing? Love for God and love for that widow.
Have you ever heard of Corrie Ten Boom? I recommend her story. She was a survivor of the Holocaust and she lost her father and sister in the concentration camps, but she was steadfast in her faith in God. So much so that when she encountered one of the soldiers who had been her guard during her time in the camp she went to him and forgave him.
The Hiding Place book or movie is where you’ll find her story and the miracles she and her sister encountered during the holocaust including a bottle of medication that continued to reproduce giving them what they needed each day.
Karla, having been a Christian for 16+ years I have heard of them all. That still doesn’t address the problem, namely that the majority of the suffering world don’t have access to the “saving knowledge” expected of the faithful. And I have merely provided one small (but significant) slice of human suffering. There are so many examples I could use.
You have identified the basic problem with the idea of an interventionist God who responds to intercessory prayer. There is no way that you can reconcile a benevolent God with the idea of omnipotence.
John Spong points out that if God responds to intercessory prayers by people for others, then lonely people with no friends would have no one to pray for them and thus get less attention from God. It kind of makes no sense.
Ultimately, I cannot believe in the idea of an interventionist God.
Hey MS, I’ve wondered about you since you stopped posting on your blog, welcome back!