If God Is God…Then Why?: Letters from Oklahoma City

On Wednesday, April 19, 1995, Americans gazed into the grotesque face of terror. In a blow to the American heart, at 9:02 a.m. terrorists ignited explosives that dissolved the front of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The 5,000-pound bomb exploded directly under the American’s Kids daycare center, located on the second floor. The entire north side of the building collapsed. Cables and concrete dangled from the stripped carcass. In this, the most deadly terrorist act in United States history at that time, 169 women, men, and children died. An additional 400 were injured. For weeks, the nation’s attention and sympathies were riveted on Oklahoma City. Americans struggled to measure the tragedy and to come to terms with the heightened sense of vulnerability the bombing unleashed. Understandably, people found it nearly impossible to believe that an act of such incomprehensible violence could occur in the United States. From all levels of society, Americans struggled to survive its impact. In a ceremony shortly after the bombing the words of one mourner expressed the thoughts of many. ‘This shouldn’t have happened, ’ the unnamed woman whispered in protest, her hands covering her face. Weeping uncontrollably, she repeated, ‘This just shouldn’t have happened.’ Whether it is the tragic attack on the World Trade Center or the death of a friend or family member, Christians struggle with an overarching question, ‘Where is God? How could He allow this to happen?’ If God Is God…Then Why? uses the situation of the Oklahoma City bombing to explore head-on the impossible and potentially faith-shattering attempts to gain meaning from senseless and evil acts.