Suffer The Children

We were talking about the Children's Crusades the other day and it made me think of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot was the leader of a communist uprising in Cambodia in the 1970s. With his army of teenage boys he successfully overthrew the government and gained complete power. Following this was genocide and the torture of thousands of innocents. Using children as his main source of power, he exploited parents and elders into submission. How could people kill their own children and grandchildren? The scary thing is, though, that children were killing their own parents for basically no reason. Innocent minds were flooded with hatred and insanity from the leader Pol Pot and he transformed thousands of teenagers into killing machines. Pol Pot later died a natural death due to a heart attack at 75. How can this happen? Read the Bible and tell me, please, because I can't figure this one out. Just as in the Children's Crusades when thousands of children died. They are supposed to be the innocent, clean counterparts to the corrupted adults, right? How can they die and be tortured, murdered and mistreated? The same question is asked by Jacob in The Slave: "The windows of the study house overlooked the hill where his wife and children lay buried...His parents, relations, friends had been tortured. [...] One day seated alone in the study house Jacob said to God, 'I have no doubt that you are the Almighty and that whatever you do is for the best, but it is impossible for me to obey the commandment, Thou Shalt Love Thy God. No, I cannot Father, not in this life.'" (Singer 108) He says that he allegedly understands that God is the Almighty and has a reason for his actions, but he is incapable of loving him. Doesn't this show a huge flaw in the religion? If one aspect of belief negates another doesn't mean that the belief is fundamentally flawed? Jacob is unable to love God, which is one of the explicit commandments, because of the suffering God instills upon the Jews. Since they believe that He has a hand in everything, Jews have to somehow justify such immense suffering. How? Jacob doesn't know. I don't know and this is where a major problem lies. How can someone believe strongly in a God (who is involved in every aspect of their existence) that allows atrocities such as genocide and death of innocents to happen.

Jacob's religous fervor is a large part of the reason he is such an interesting character. He wants to believe, so badly, that his religion is infallible, but he can't. Since these questions of theodicy crop up, he is haunted and is unable to justify such suffering. The problem of religious opportunism is huge in this novel and Jacob struggles with it throughout. Every aspect of his religion pales as he watches his fellow Jews pick and choose what aspects of the Torah they wish to follow. The fact that he struggles with this makes him an extremely honest character. He can't imagine, under the watchful eye of God, that children and other innocents would suffer and be murdered by the thousands. I think this book has an exemplary way of portraying the struggle extremely religious people have with theodicy.