2. Why are there so many starving children in the world?

The reason that there are so many starving children in the world is because we have all failed. As Christians we have failed to “look after the orphan and the widow in their distress” (James 1.27). Tyrants and warlords have become world leaders and we have ignored the cries of the oppressed. The western church has taken its wealth and affluence and has become gluttonous. A local church today will spend a million dollars on a sound system, and only send one or two people with only a couple thousand dollars on a long term mission. As Christians, we have the greater responsibility to do more about such things and we have failed. Additionally, it is not just Christians who are at fault (although we ought to bear the majority of the blame). How much money do we spend on coffee, junk food, television, music, sports, porn, etc., each year? Billions, maybe even trillions of dollars. And how much do we send to starving women and children in Sudan or Darfur? It might as well be nothing.

My point though is not to make everyone feel bad about how much money we spend on lattes every day. Rather, my point is to show that the problem is our fault, not God’s. Could God drop a pot roast from the sky for every starving family in the world? Sure. But if he did, would we repent of our selfish and gluttonous apathy? No. The problem is real and children are starving, but it is our fault, not God’s. Does God care about these children? Yes. And he has called us and continues to call us to do something about it. But we haven’t been listening. One of the sickest things we tend to do as human beings is look at our condition and blame God for our mess. Adam did it in the garden when he blamed God for giving him a woman who would feed him forbidden fruit (Gen 3.12). And we do it by looking at the twisted and crooked world we have made and say there can’t be a God because he wouldn’t let there be any consequences for our sins. But even though this truly breaks the heart of God, we go on and carry on as we have before. The author of Ecclesiastes writes,

“Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed—and they have no comforter;
Power is on the side of their oppressor—and they have no comforter.” Eccl 4.1-2

Is our failure to carry out God’s justice and mercy the fault of God or ourselves? It is ours and that is truly an “inconvenient truth”. He told us what we need to do for these people. But in our wickedness, we looked upon our own failure and blamed God. I don’t see how this is proof that God does not exist. The logic of such a conclusion is murky and convoluted. To say that we have ignored the suffering and oppression of these children, thus there is no God, makes no sense. And yet that is the conclusion of the well educated and thoughtful individuals who produced this video. This would lead me to the conclusion that this video is not trying to uncover truth or try to understand the other side of the issue. Rather this video is pushing an agenda regardless if it is or isn’t true or helpful to anyone. And such motivations are harmful and deceptive which is far more dangerous than being “delusional”—it is pathological and unconscionable.