Using the Pain of Other People

I've noticed that there is something rather disturbing that people do when they hear about the pain in other people's lives. Many times, they seem to use these stories of real pain and suffering to justify their own faith. This is just plain wrong.

I'm not talking about the stock answer of "Well, God has a plan." That's just stupid and silly, and is really about as close a reaction to blinding stories of pain as a deer getting caught in the headlights of an oncoming freight truck.

I'm talking about responses like this: "Yeah, I thank God every night that my kids are healthy." How insensitive to real pain and suffering! You immediately turn the story inward and use it to be thankful to God that your own kids are healthy and alive, or are not disabled or don't have some strange disease. Do people who respond like this have any idea of how that makes the other person feel? So, you thank God for protecting your loved ones - what am I supposed to do with that? So God isn't protecting my loved ones that are going through pain and suffering?

Don't use other people's pain to justify your own faith. It's incredibly selfish and insensitive.

Another less egregious example is when someone is going through real pain and suffering, and fighting to survive through medical procedures or whatever, and something actually goes right - they make progress, the surgery is successful, whatever - and someone responds by saying, "Well, I've been praying every day for you, and it looks like prayer works!" What about all the times that something goes wrong - does that mean that God wasn't listening or chose not to help? Please, keep your religious, supernatural nonsense to yourselves - if you want to pray and want to feel like you are doing something about a situation you have no control over, that's all well and good - but DO NOT use the painful situations others are going through to justify your own actions, your own faith, and your own God.

Jesus said to pray in your closets. Keep it there, please. You are not helping people going through real pain and suffering by justifying your own personal faith right in front of their weeping eyes.