I, too, would not worship the God that Gregory A. Clark described in his April 30 Public Forum letter.
The many maladies you listed are assigned to humans, not God. Many of these maladies are listed in the Bible, but are meant to show human characteristics that need to be overcome. Hopefully, readers relate to one or more and will change for the better with the help of God.
As a retired process engineer, I spent my life trying to write universal instructions for people to follow. I found each reader brings their own background, baggage, biases, and experiences to the written words, and each interprets them differently. No matter how succinct you think you make the words, there will always be some that interpret them differently from what you meant.
In this case, you are trying to insert your definition of the biblical God for the evangelicals. As you know, many interpret God’s word differently, as shown by the online comments to your letter.
I think Leonard Pitts, in his April 28 column, was trying to emphasize the comfort, mercy, grace and compassion for others found in Scripture, and that the evangelicals have taken too harsh a view.
Marilyn Marshall, Magna