I have mentioned Saadawi once on this blog and a quote from her book, Diary of a girl called Souad, is our Sunday reading.
She has Soaud express her feelings thus
Souad feels some sort of joy and thanks God because he loves them and did not create them poor beggars in the streets like the limping old man that she sees everyday on her way to school and is afraid of. She imagines that God hates the poor because He did not give them anything, but she wonders why God hates the poor. And if God hates them and did not give them anything, then why does he want us to love them and give to them from what he has bestowed on us?
And we join her in asking why should we go against God’s will who by making poor people desired that they suffer. The first response would be that god does not create anyone poor but that poverty results from policies and actions of men and women. While this is true, the next question would be why does she let such a situation to remain?
Random thoughts 
“Si because he has a plan for everyone” is the probable response you’ll get from the devouts. As though it absolves God of the sin of passivity. But oh, I forget, He doesn’t sin.
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And in that case, trying to make their situation better, we are interfering with god’s plan
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The fundamental question is the second one. When there is enough to go around why do so many go without. Why does it remain?
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That, my friend, is the fundamental question.
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Easy to praise god for the good stuff and ascribe seekrit meanings to questions such as poverty and illness as part of god’s plan.
Some religions not of a Christian stripe do, I believe, understand that their god (or gods) is whimsical, occasionally cruel, and bestows his favors and punishments according to his whims.
Why Christians choose to ignore the ‘humanness’ of their god, is beyond me.
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Christians, Muslims and Judaists by making their god one, put themselves in a fix. I don’t know how they can free their god from charges of favouritism
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The existence of poverty is the justification, in the eyes of the multitudes, of their esteemed position as a “favored” class. It reinforces their need for superiority. Naked hugs!
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We get lost in a murky quagmire of contradiction if we try to rationalize the real world through religion. It simply cannot be done because religion is a product of our imagination and not a product of reality.
Additionally, institutional religion cannot be separated from its politics. A perfect example is the historic split of Christianity in the 15th and 16th centuries. Catholicism interpreted biblical precepts as requiring the church to support the poor (which also served as a means of social control) while Protestantism abandoned that notion in favor of the Calvinist “work ethic” which prioritized hard work, discipline and frugality over ceremonial orthodoxy.
That such a profound contrast between these differing interpretations of scripture would emerge hundreds of years ago and endure to this very day provides convincing evidence of political motivation in the application of religious doctrine. Church leaders have always read what they wanted to read from the Bible, and I offer the merger of evangelicalism and political conservatism in America as proof.
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You are right and your final paragraph is quite to the point
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Did I hear someone mention poor people and God? GREAT!!! This gives me a great opportunity to explain my platform for my 2020 Senate run next year. I propose that gas chambers and crematoriums be placed throughout the U.S. so we can “take care of” the “problem” that is the poor and disabled in my country. Really, which would you rather do: walk past stinky-ass poor and disabled people on your way to work or gas ’em, cremate ’em and use their ashes to fertilize your garden each spring? I mean, COME ON!!! This is what God WANTS us to do! Put the poor and disabled to some use besides sucking the nation dry with tax-filled “programs” to “help” them. Yes, a vote for IBTD1 in 2020 is a vote for Jesus, gas chambers, crematoriums, and a 98% tax cut for America’s wealthiest individuals, families, and corporations. Vote for IBTD1. Vote for who Jesus wants most to be Senator: me.
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Killing poor people would be sending them to spend time with god sooner. Your votes seem quite safe.
Reminds me of what I read about the inquisition. The bishops had no qualms with the pain they meted out because these people were destined for hell anyway
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And of course, if God has a plan what’s the point of exercising our ”free will”?
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Hard to say, you know. All confusing
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You stated — “While this is true, the next question would be why does she let such a situation to remain?”
My response — I’m curious: Why is it assumed that God should do anything to change the situation of man?
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Interesting question.
If, as the believers insist, god has interfered in human affairs before, why would it not do so to change the situation of man?
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You stated — “If, as the believers insist, god has interfered in human affairs before, why would it not do so to change the situation of man?
My response — Using that logic, God has also not interfered, so why interfered now?
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