Where is God when bad things happen?

I interview Justin Taylor,
co-editor of Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

The headlines are full of tragic and unsettling news, from the events of 9/11, to an Asian tsunami, to Hurricane Katrina, to the senseless killings of innocent little Amish girls.

Where is God when these things happen? Can we have confidence that he is in control of all of it?

A new book, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (Crossway), addresses just such questions. The book is edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor, and I was delighted to interview Justin today.

The book arose out of a conference on the subject, and the conference's speakers ended up being contributors to the book. Besides John Piper, they include Mark Talbot, Steve Saint, Carl F. Ellis Jr., David Powlison, Dustin Shramek and Joni Eareckson Tada.

Several of the contributors have gone through deep personal tragedy themselves, as Justin speaks about in this (1 min. 23 sec.) clip from our interview:



Among the ideas challenged in the book is that of "open theism." Justin explains the notion in this (:51) clip:



In this (1 min. 4 sec.) clip, Justin talks about who he'd like to read the book and how he'd like to see them approach it.



And on a lighter note...

This week's Cindy Swanson, CyberSnoop: The Case of the Morbid Mural.



Go here to see the actual photo.