When Horror Shatters Faith: A Response to Kemi Badenoch

From a locked basement to a shattered heart: what suffering taught me about God.

In a recent BBC interview, Kemi Badenoch explained that her belief in God was extinguished after learning the details of the Josef Fritzl case. His daughter Elisabeth, held captive for 24 years and subjected to repeated abuse, had reportedly prayed daily for rescue. “Why,” Badenoch asked, “was God answering my prayers about buses and exam results, but not hers?”

She described it as a candle of faith being blown out.

It’s a haunting image. And it’s a good question.

But it’s also a question shaped by a particular way of thinking about prayer: as a kind of divine vending machine. A God who responds to small, everyday requests: “Help me pass this test,” “Let the bus come soon”, but ignores cries from the depths of human suffering begins to look arbitrary, capricious, even cruel.

But is that the God of Scripture? Or is it the God of our expectations?