This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Jan Harding remained in critical condition at the University of Utah Hospital after unknowingly drinking sweet tea poisoned with lye ("Woman who drank poisoned tea still critical," Tribune, August 15).
But Dan Walker, executive director of the Salt Lake Baptist Association, predictably remarked, "By the grace of God, the doctor on duty [when she arrived] was the Chief of the U of U Burn Unit."
Too bad this same purportedly omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent god didn't have the good grace to tell Harding not to drink the tea, as any reasonable person would have done.
Now why would that be?
For the same reason that He didn't tell Jim Jones' religious followers not to drink the Kool-Aid:
God is imaginary. Or evil. You choose.
And, in the midst of tragedies, at least have the good grace to stop the nonsensical preachings of how wonderful He supposedly is.
Greg Clark
Salt Lake City