This is stolen from Scott Besnecker's Blog: "The New Friars". But it's a really good piece. I'm just going to give you a teaser of it here and you can go to his site to finish it. I may try and comment on it later.
"A couple of years ago I surveyed the students who had been on Global Projects (InterVarsity's short term mission program). Forty percent experienced depression upon return. I have watched students come back from a summer living in some of the most desperate conditions humanity is experiencing today, and ditch the faith. They do not have the theological framework to support the existence of an all-powerful good God, and the reality of human suffering.
We in the western church have built a house of cards for our faith - beautiful, large, and colorful, but completely unable to sustain the weight of suffering.
The New Unger's Bible Dictionary has over 6,700 thoroughly researched entries. They have an entry on the word "sulfur," for instance (referencing Sodom and Gomorrah) but they have no entry for the word "suffer." According to this Bible dictionary, the Bible has nothing to say about suffering. This is clearly a reference tool constructed from a western Christian theology - one that has no room for suffering. How can we in good conscience send this resource to believers in China or Uganda or any other place Christians are suffering poverty, oppression or persecution?" -Click here to read Scott's full article
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