Oh, the Calvinists could make perfect sense
of it all with a wave
of a
hand and a swift, confident explanation about how Zarmina had been born in sin and likely predestined to spend eternity in hell to the glory
of an angry God (they called her a «vessel
of destruction»); about how I should just be thankful to be spared the same
fate since it's what I deserve anyway; about how the Asian tsunami was just another one
of God's temper tantrums sent to remind us all
of His rage at our sin; about how I need not worry because «there is not one maverick molecule in the universe» so every hurricane, every earthquake, every war, every execution, every transaction in the slave trade, every rape
of a child is part
of God's sovereign plan, even God's idea; about how my objections to this paradigm
represented unrepentant pride and a capitulation to humanism that placed too much inherent value on my fellow human beings; about how my intuitive sense
of love and morality and right and wrong is so corrupted by my sin nature I can not trust it.