Bunda C. Chibwe has served as a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles since the World Conference of 2000.  His current apostolic assignment is to lead the Africa and Haiti Mission Field.

Discernment Processes and Questions for Further Reflection and Discussion

Doctrine and Covenants 163 Commentary Series

Unnecessary Suffering

by Bunda Chibwe

God, the Eternal Creator, weeps for the poor, displaced, mistreated, and diseased of the world because of their unnecessary suffering. Such conditions are not God’s will. Open your ears to hear the pleading of mothers and fathers in all nations who desperately seek a future of hope for their children. Do not turn away from them. For in their welfare resides your welfare. —Doctrine and Covenants 163:4a

Every day is a miracle for many of the world’s people. As Margaret Wheatley in her book Dancing in the Dark puts it, they “live and dance in an extraordinarily dark time.” Incurable diseases, injustice, and ethnic wars devastate and sweep out the remaining hope of many societies. Instead of living in loving community, people deliberately choose to become more individualistic, competitive, and materialistic.

The Copenhagen Consensus, a study of global problems and possible solutions, lists thirty-one critical problems facing humanity. As some scholars have noted, if only the ten most critical global crises and issues could be addressed in time [see sidebar], it would dramatically improve conditions worldwide and make God smile.

A disturbing factor is that we humans want first to justify why some people have more and to spare, others can barely make it, and vast numbers still face unnecessary misery brought on by extreme poverty. Doctrine and Covenants 163:4a points to poetic and provocative imagery: a weeping God, parents pleading for hope, ears deaf to suffering, and the blindness of the rich to the poor. What do such images evoke in the souls of a prophetic people called to discern what matters most?

Further, does the idea that such suffering is not God’s will contradict previous notions of God’s plan for us and for the world? Finally, what does a church called to share the peace of Jesus Christ have to do with this challenge? Our theology is most relevant when it listens to the oppressed, the poor, and the marginalized, because they will tell us how well we are ministering. Deuteronomy 15:11 affirms, “The needy will never be lacking in the land; that is why I command you to open your hand to your poor and needy kinsman in your country.” Theologian James Cone notes that true liberation theologians are compelled to hear the cries of the people who sing, “I wish I knew how it would feel to be free, I wish I could break all the chains holdin’ me.” Asian theologian Kosuku Koyama adds that the oppressed want justice, not charity; the rich want to give charity, not justice. In particular, the powerful members of the community want to give religion to the poor in hopes it will take away their complaints. But God’s politics must hear the unuttered cry of one fallen and unable to cry.

photo by June Stephenson

Is it God’s will that 95 percent of the 45 million people worldwide infected with HIV/AIDS should live in developing countries? Is it God’s will that three-fourths of the 3 million people who died of AIDS in 2004 were in sub-Saharan Africa? Why should women, men, and children deep in poverty now face the devastation that comes when HIV/AIDS takes hold in their community? Why should thousands of people dying of malaria each year be from the developing world? Why? Why? Why?

Section 163:4a calls a prophetic people to be in the forefront of creating a world of joy, hope, love, and peace. It is as true today as in the days of liberation from Egypt (see Exodus chapters 15—17) and in the days of ancient prophets (see Jeremiah 15:19 and 29:6–8; and Isaiah 58:5–10, for starters). It means for us to take the initiative to transform the world, to sacrifice greatly, and to know deeply that God weeps when the worth and dignity of people are at stake. A prophetic people set one foot in the real world to experience the sadness
and often-elusive joy of life. They set the other in search of the Divine to bravely challenge the socioeconomic, political cultural, and religious trends controlled by a few people to the detriment of many.

Numerous Gospel passages should be understood contextually rather than literally when we seriously listen to the counsel in Section 163:4a. Luke 6:20 (“Blessed are the poor for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”) and Luke 18:18–19 (“It is easier for a camel to get through an eye of a needle than a rich person to get into the kingdom of heaven.”) are just two examples. God weeps for the unnecessary suffering of people when they experience conditions that are not God’s will. God weeps because, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice in one place is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Biblical writers used anthropomorphic language to show how God acts and is known in the world. Jesus wept over Jerusalem and at Lazarus’s tomb. In John’s apocalypse of the New Jerusalem, God erases tears from the eyes of God’s people (see Revelation 21:4). The eternal God who weeps suggests a face-to-face, total degradation of humanity and loss of ability for people to take care of themselves and others.

In Africa, weeping is not only a way to free oneself from pain but also an expression of loss of hope and a willingness to confess and correct the damages made so salvation can occur. I believe James Cone is right to interpret salvation as “liberation from bondage” and as consistent with the biblical view. Those who need salvation are those who have been threatened or oppressed. Their salvation consists in rescue from tyranny or imminent danger. This is what I see the weeping God reminding us to do when unnecessary suffering prevails in the world.

I am reminded about the place of widows in African societies. Daisy N. Nuwachuku summarizes this succinctly: “The widow is perceived as taboo to living husbands and other males. She is subject to helplessness, punishment, neglect, contempt, suspicion about treachery, or lack of good care. She is perceived as threatening to other couples’ relationships and suspected of adulterous living. She is therefore a neglected and deserted lonely woman” (as quoted in The Will to Arise: Women, Tradition and the Church in Africa, Orbis, 1992).

For centuries Africans have viewed Christianity as a tool to provoke, crush, humiliate, conquer, dominate, impose, and exploit the developing world by the so-called developed world. In the name of religion, the conquered had to learn about their conquerors for sheer survival. The conquerors needed only to know to control and exploit the conquered.

The challenge in Section 163:4a includes reshaping our understandings of God. We may then come to agree with Jose Miguez Bonino that the church works in a political arena where Christians will grapple with politics, where their faith will necessarily die and be resurrected: “In this New World, we have to learn anew to name God and confess Christ, to believe and to be the church, to pray and receive the sacrament, to be holy and to expectantly wait for life eternal” (Toward a Christian Political Ethics, Fortress Press, 1983, p. 8). This is how to “comfort God,” whose heart is troubled by the unbelievable misery of the poor and displaced.

The challenge from Section 163 helps me understand Job, who after the death of his children said, “Naked I came from my mother, naked I shall return. Yahweh gave, Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yahweh” (Job 1:20–21). In Mark 14:7 Jesus tells his disciples, “The poor will always be with you.” We are encouraged in Section 163:4a to go deeper and study intently and also remember the many scriptures that counsel kindness to the poor, destitute, widows, and children so they, too, would enjoy the goodness of God. Micah 6:8, in particular, reminds us, “…what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly
with your God” (NRSV). Gustavo Gutierrez said that our relationship with God is expressed in our relationship with the poor. This is a great teaching for our congregations!

Like all the parents of the world, Rachel wept bitterly and refused to be comforted over the loss of her children with the exile of the northern tribes (see Jeremiah 31:15–22 and Matthew 2:18). Parents always search for hope for their children. There can be no wholehearted love and respect for others without sensitive patterns of work and leisure, family living and community involvement; without parents with time for each other and their children; and without fathers and mothers with regard for their offspring and a hopeful eye on the future. Parents have remarkable hope for future generations, trying to do what they can to secure a better future for their children.

Section 163:4a reflects Isaiah 58:5–10 in calling us to compare our thoughts in worship to the reality of our actions. As in Isaiah’s time, our formal prayers too often mask our true thoughts of personal gain. We are called to know that self-abasement, of itself, is futile. Rather we are called to loving service and social conscientiousness by listening to the lonely, oppressed, unloved, and neglected. We must go beyond ourselves to the needs of the world around us. That’s where we will discover our light and our salvation.

Section 163:4a also reflects Jeremiah, often portrayed as the weeping prophet. The people’s plight overwhelms God to the breaking point. We are therefore called to be revolutionary and understand that our religion and discipleship do not depend on residence in the land of the Americas, Africa, or Asia. Neither does it depend on the existence of the Temple nor offerings of sacrifice but on the inner transformation of our collective “soul.” This will lead to real, lasting renewal and raise in us the ardent desire to work for the good, the peace of the people where we live, because in their welfare resides our welfare.

This passage reminds me in powerful ways that my teaching on scriptural stewardship and discipleship cannot be divided but is interdependent and indispensable. In the welfare of poor people resides my welfare. The prophetic challenges of A Disciple’s Generous Response encourage me to review stewardship within the context of the African culture of giving and hospitality. As Zimbabwean Ben Chikazaza said, “Giving is in the root of African culture.” This helps me understand that I can’t get to heaven on my own!

To adopt the place of the poor is our first deed of solidarity with them. This requires us to join them out on the margins of society, to make their questions our priority and honestly face up to the challenges. I know this is not an easy task, for it goes against the grain of our imbedded cultural racism, self-interests, and many current political trends. But God has never called the church to easy tasks. What the world considers impossible most fittingly belongs to the church. Surely God weeps for the unnecessary suffering of the people because
such conditions are not God’s will.