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07/25/2007: "Modern people afraid of suffering because lives are meaningless"

People in the pews want to know why, if God is loving, the innocent suffer – and they aren't always happy with the answers from the pulpit.

One factor, observers say, is a culture that no longer accepts suffering as a means to spiritual growth. Long gone are the Middle Ages, when the faithful typically viewed human trials as a divinely given process of perfection and a holy pathway to the next world.

Christians in America today tend to pay a hollow lip service to others' misery – to hold it at arm's length rather than live and minister among those in the midst of it, says Elaine Heath,

[ Religion, too, is a matter of convenience. If you suffer, it's because you didn't work hard enough at God's job to afford God's top quality drugs. ]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070725/ts_csm/apastors