This discussion on God and Haiti’s suffering is very good:
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith//2010/01/does_god_allow_haiti_to_suffer/all.html
Frankly, I have been struggling with the idea in our book that all suffering is part of God’s handiwork, to either mete out divine vengeance or build us up (should we survive) for some future challenge. I need to go back and re-read (or keep reading), but I did not see what to say to a Haitian mother railing at God after sitting by the rubble of her home, helplessly listening to her child slowly die in great pain (an imagined but not improbable scenario).
I found better answers in much of what many of the Christian and Jewish writers at the above forum had to say. I also found atheists and agnostics having a field day with what Pat Robertson said. My first instinct is to not try to answer the mother’s anger against God, but to just do what I can to help and comfort. My next instinct is that the “why, God?” question isn’t even the right one to ask, but there is something about us humans that strives to understand and explain every question put to us.
I seem to be hard-wired to be uncomfortable with the inexplicable. I marvel at those who are at peace, even serene, with mystery.