Elizabeth Edwards died on Tuesday. Before her death she wrote on Facebook: “You all know that I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces—my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope.” In a post that gives blogging and religion a bad name, a conservative blogger named Donald Douglass criticized her on Monday for not mentioning God, concluded that she was anti-religion, and piled on by denigrating what he called the “neo-communists” at American Prospect for allegedly thinking that her being anti-religion was cool. See here.
Donald Douglas would be merely mean-spirited if he were right about Elizabeth Edwards, but he is wrong. Elizabeth Edwards was not anti-religious and she did believe in God. She said in Newsweek in 2007 that she believed that God enlightens and saves, but she did not believe that God protects us on earth. She came to this conclusion after her son died in a traffic accident: “You've kept God out of the public discussion of your situation. Why?
“I had to think about a God who would not save my son. Wade was—and I have lots of evidence; it's not just his mother saying it—a gentle and good boy. He reached out to people who were misfits and outcasts all the time. He could not stand for people to say nasty things about other people; he just didn't want it. For a 16-year-old boy, he was really extraordinary in this regard. I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. You'd think that if God was going to protect somebody, he'd protect that boy. But not only did he not protect him, the wind blew him from the road. The hand of God blew him from the road. So I had to think, "What kind of God do I have that doesn't intervene—in fact, may even participate—in the death of this good boy?" I talk about it in the book, that I had to accept that my God was a God who promised enlightenment and salvation. And that's all. Didn't promise us protection. I've had to come to grips with a God that fits my own experience, which is, my God could not be offering protection and not have protected my boy.
“You didn't lose your faith, you changed your faith? Or did you lose it for a time?
I'm not praying for God to save me from cancer. I'm not. God will enlighten me when the time comes. And if I've done the right thing, I will be enlightened. And if I believe, I'll be saved. And that's all he promises me.”
Elizabeth Edwards welcomed prayers from others specifically referring to her participation in the communion of saints. She was alternatively praised and blamed by American Prospect and Douglas for believing that we “should live our lives that way for some promise of eternal life, but because that's what's right. We should do those things because that's what's right.”
Many think that this is an unconventional view, but as David Gibson states in a characteristically thoughtful piece about Edwards and Douglas in Politics Daily, “Elizabeth Edwards' view that Christians should take care of others not out of a self-interested salvation but out of selflessness and love of God is also about as mainstream as you can get, since it was the command of Jesus himself.”
Gibson writes that “Douglas drew some sharp critiques in the comments on his post but also strong support, and even in the report on the faith angle at Christianity Today -- the leading mainstream evangelical publication -- some commenters rued Edwards' apparent lack of orthodox Christian faith.
"But a closer look at the faith of Elizabeth Edwards offers a more nuanced view, and one that might elicit more charity from those who would judge her at her death.” Gibson gives a close look in an essay that is well worth your time. I strongly recommend it. You will come away with an even greater admiration for Elizabeth Edwards. May she rest in peace.
Elizabeth Edwards lack FAITH and obviously never read the book of Job. God does promise us help but we MUST ask for it and BELIEVE He will help us. "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin." Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:15-16.
Posted by: dawn marie | 12/10/2010 at 04:42 AM