{"id":140,"date":"2026-09-02T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/2026\/09\/02\/where-is-god-when-the-unthinkable-happens\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T09:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T09:30:00","slug":"where-is-god-when-the-unthinkable-happens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/2026\/09\/02\/where-is-god-when-the-unthinkable-happens\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Is God When the Unthinkable Happens?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-140-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/s\/6823c39c\/podcast\/play\/124728550\/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-7-25%2Fd2256c35-a403-2134-0e0e-e3f227fc7ade.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/s\/6823c39c\/podcast\/play\/124728550\/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-7-25%2Fd2256c35-a403-2134-0e0e-e3f227fc7ade.mp3\">https:\/\/anchor.fm\/s\/6823c39c\/podcast\/play\/124728550\/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-7-25%2Fd2256c35-a403-2134-0e0e-e3f227fc7ade.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Can there really be a place where God is absent?<\/p>\n<p>In this episode of <strong>Unbound Love<\/strong>, Gayle and Nataliecontinue the conversation that began with Natalie\u2019s pilgrimage through places connected to Etty Hillesum and the Holocaust. This time, they wrestle with a much harder question: <strong>Can a place become so filled with suffering, cruelty,and evil that God simply isn\u2019t there?<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>Natalie begins with a haunting poem preserved from Auschwitz that describes Birkenau as a place \u201cforgotten by God.\u201d That language becomes the launching point: When we call somewhere <em>God-forsaken<\/em>, do we actually believe God has forsaken it? Or are we describing what happens when human beings become so disconnected from God\u2014and from one another\u2014that their actions become godless? <\/p>\n<p>The conversation turns toward a challenging theologicalpossibility: <strong>perhaps there are no places without God unless human beingscreate them.<\/strong> God may remain available, but we can become so separated fromcompassion, empathy, and one another that we no longer recognize\u2014or choose to participate in\u2014the divine presence around us. <\/p>\n<p>Join us on this journey as we explore the idea that humanbeings are remarkably capable of convincing ourselves that <strong>our desires are God&#8217;s desires<\/strong>. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Can there really be a place where God is absent? In this episode of Unbound Love, Gayle and Nataliecontinue the conversation that began with Natalie\u2019s pilgrimage through places connected to Etty Hillesum and the Holocaust. This time, they wrestle with a much harder question: Can a place become so filled with suffering, cruelty,and evil that God simply isn\u2019t there? Natalie begins with a haunting poem preserved from Auschwitz that describes Birkenau as a place \u201cforgotten by God.\u201d That language becomes the launching point: When we call somewhere God-forsaken, do we actually believe God has forsaken it? Or are we describing what happens when human beings become so disconnected from God\u2014and from one another\u2014that their actions become godless? The conversation turns toward a challenging theologicalpossibility: perhaps there are no places without God unless human beingscreate them. God may remain available, but we can become so separated fromcompassion, empathy, and one another that we no longer recognize\u2014or choose to participate in\u2014the divine presence around us. Join us on this journey as we explore the idea that humanbeings are remarkably capable of convincing ourselves that our desires are God&#8217;s desires.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcast"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdhG8T-2g","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unbound.love\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}