a first

Today I made my first visit to a book club in a church.  It was a nice time.  Here's the thing I left thinking about, though.  One of the passages that inspired discussion was when Miranda realizes why Mr. Scrap did what he did:

He's afraid, she thinks.  He was afraid of Jared.  Preemptive strikes and hasty decisions all over the world.

One reader in particular really loved this and the commentary it provides on the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Others were quiet.  Very quiet.  And I wondered--which I know is ignorant, because spirituality is not politicality, but, then again the personal is political--how do people who believe in God  accept what's happening in the world?  I mean, I know there are different conceptions of God, and some are quite distant and abstract, but, really.  Are they angry at God?  Just disgusted with humanity?  And if your idea of God is like some distant, uninvolved figure, then why bother praying?  It confuses me.  But I'm a heathen.  Words created God and Allah and all the rest of them.  I bow to words.