Everybody Wants To Know...

BY DAN SPALDING Times-Union Leisure Editor

What do the Holocaust and the deaths of Pricess Diana and JonBonet Ramsey have in common?

These tragedies have led millions of people to ask the same question - one that spans the globe and has prevailed for centuries: Why do bad things happen to good people?

"Among all the things people are grappling with, both in the church and out of the church, is the issue of suffering, pain, hunger, death. It's worldwide and crosses every class," said John Davis an author, columnist, former college president and world-traveling theologian.

On Saturday, Davis will begin a four-part series exploring the issue as part of First Presbyterian Church's Saturday Night On High program. The program is free and open to the public. Starting time is 7 p.m.

Davis is not new to the series. Last year, the former president of Grace College presided over a three-part look at prophecy. The series was so popular, attendance picked up as it progressed and it was expanded to include two additional nights of discussion.

Davis is confident the new topic will be just as, if not more intriguing for the general public.

"If ever there was an issue on people's minds that we can deal with and be of interest and value, this is it," Davis said.

"This presumed silence of God has been a real nagging problem - not only for Christians - but for Jews and Muslims. Certainly World War II heightened that sensitivity. Where was God when the fires were being lit at Auschwitz?"

For church leaders, it is one of the most common and most difficult questions since they commonly preach that God is a loving, caring deity.

"The enormity and the complexity of the problem is really challenging," Davis said.

But the issue bothers the secular community as well.

Different approaches will be reviewed, including perspectives of people who believe in an all-controlling God, a finite God and atheism.

One of the goals of the series, Davis said, will be to demonstrate how to use the painful experiences in a beneficial way.

Each presentation will include time for questions.

The series will continue Nov. 8, Jan. 13 and Feb. 21.

Other churches, including one in Indiananapolis where a pastor was bludgeoned to death, have asked if the series could be videotaped for future use.

Davis, 61, is no stranger to the speaking circuit. He does more than 150 speaking engagements a year ranging from weekly talks in area churches to annual engagements in Singapore and Australia.

Although he's considered an expert in biblical studies (he's been a professor of the Old Testament and Hebrew for 32 years) Middle East archaeology (he served as a senior staff member on nine archaeological digs in the region), Davis' background extends into sports broadcasting.

For seven years in the 1970s he served as color commentator for Fort Wayne Komet radio broadcasts with Bob Chase. He also broadcast area high school basketball, football and baseball for WRSW.

"What (broadcasting) did for me was learn to be very precise and to be analytical," Davis said.