>> hi, lord, i got a question for you. >> hi god. >> what's up, god? >> hi, god. >> why do bad things always hannon to me? >> how can you claim to be the true answer? >> what's heaven like? >> hi, god. >> one question for you. >> hi, i'm dr. lori carrell. as a professor of communication, i love to talk, and i'm convinced it's good for us to talk about anything and everything, and we're going to do that on this show. now, i want to you think for just a minute. if you could talk to god and ask god one question, any question, what would you ask? i have a long list of questions,

but here's what we did. we went out on the street and got real questions for god from real people. you're going to hear those people asking their questions, and maybe someone else will ask one of yours. these are real questions and this is very real talk. get ready. here we go. it's time for ask god. >> god, my question is, why do you play favorites? why are some people blessed with so many advantages, not necessarily wealth, but love, and success and family and some people have none? it's not necessarily the ones that merit it that receive it. my question, god, is why do you play favorites?

>> god, it looks like you play favorites. we don't like favorites. mom's favorite. teacher's pet. what about this? how did you compare to the other kids with when you were younger, judson? >> i had two other brothers an a sister. it seems like they knew so much. when i got to grade school, i felt like i knew as much as everybody around me. >> you were on the short end in preschool. >> yeah, yeah. >> how about you? >> well, i always had acne and i saw people drinking sodas an they could eat whatever they wanted, candy, and i felt really bad about my skin and things like that, so i guess it's appearance. >> so you compared yourself. >> sure. >> so it seemed like it wasn't fair? >> not fair at. >> i wanted a coke coal l.a. >> mark. >> i was the youngest in my family. i got all the preferential treatment. i got to sit around. i would look around and say, wow, i'm so glad i'm the youngest in this family.

there were great advantages. >> you were the baby. >> i was the baby. >> and you were the favorite? >> well, don't tell anybody i said that. oh, yeah. >> how about you? >> growing up in the new york public school system, they used to line us up to, you know, figure out how to go into auditoriums. i always kind of compared myself to height. i was taller than this guy, shorter than this guy. that was the beginning. >> and we do play those kind of mind games looking out at who is taller, who is shorter, and other ways. am i okay? am i the favorite in this circumstance or that? what does it mean to be a favorite? >> when i think about it, just being a favorite, it really says i get are more than you get, and there's no real reason why, and if you ask me why i get it, maybe i just say because i'm me, or maybe that's how someone would look at me if i said i'm a favorite. >> in school, the way you get to be a favorite is you play up to

the teacher. the rules are real clear. get the teacher to like you, do what the teacher wants and then the teach ler like you. >> but the other kids don't like you. >> probably the best place to start is what do we mean by favorite? that's really important. i was thinking the question does god play favorites and i think he does. i know that sounds radical. >> in the sense that, look, i have two daughters. i love them both equally, but my first-born has been with me longer than my other daughter t doesn't mean that i love my other daughter less, but i have had a longer relationship with my first-born. >> is she your favorite? >> no but god chose the jewish people in the bible. he had a longer relationship with them than any of the other nationalities of the world. that doesn't mean he loves theel others any less. there is an idea of first-born thaw can't negate. >> does that mean they're favorites? >> they need to define favorite.

>> does it mean that i am the preferred person? >> or do you just have certain characteristics? >> and also, responsibilities. >> the question is, does god. i'm a human man. i can have a favorite. i like big macs better than something else, but does god play favorites? i don't know. if i'm a gentile, then do i say, well, god likes them more than me? >> no, because the bible is clear he loves gentiles as much as he loves jews, but if we're going to go to the bible, the bible does say i've chosen you, not because of anything you did. there was no merit in israel, so there is this idea of chosenness that god singled out a group of people toll do something. >> were they chosen or favorites? >> i chose my wife. do i favor that person? >yes, i do!

>> i think that we really want to go to the question. i think we need to define what we mean by favorite first. if that doesn't mean that god doesn't have choices or situations that he wants to execute in a certain way, and i think that's going to be crucial to answering the question of favoritism. >> maybe the question becomes does god define favorite the way we define favorite and how do we define favorite. you were dealt the card of being the youngest in the family. you were dealt the things you were born into. there is a dealer. there are some cards. we will play a game to help us think about favoritism. you have cards in front of you. this game is called the card you're dealt. >> is this a competitive game? >> oh, no. >(buzzer). >> so you each have some cards, and i'll deal your last card to

you here, and then we will find out -- and i have some cards, too. see what cards you've been dealt. the dealer has given you these cards, and these are the cards that you have been dealt, and why don't we start -- why don't you tell us -- look at your cards. what cards have you been dealt? >> oh, yeah. no, i don't want that one. >> oh, you've got toss say them outloud. >> here's one, body of an olympic swimmer. >> oh, nice! what else? >> wishful thinking. >> it's a game, not reality. >> a artistic genius. >> yes, i like that. >> mute. >> okay. that shuts down -- okay. tell us the last one before you're quiet. >> born to beggar parents in botswana. i got some good cards, well, maybe. born with a face only a mother could love. >> okay.

okay. >> now i'm getting nervous! >> this card is really jahn's -- chronic bad health. >> a face onlying a mother can love, chronic bad health. >> raised in a loving family. >> we like that card. >> this is my lot in the next ten years, a famous movie director. >> a famous movie director along with the bad health. those are the cards you're dea dealt. aja, what cards were you dealt? >> the leader o a free world. chronic halitosis, losing my hair and sweaty palms and a secret battle with depression. >> jahn, what do you have? >> i'm a billion dollar winner

of the lottery, and i have stunning good looks. >> wow! >> and a bumbling clutch. i have an i.q. of 80. >> all right. all right. >> let's just see about that. let's see. i am the daughter of bill gates. this is something i haven't shared with all of you. oh! i have a nobel prize intellect! oh, another ace, a breathtaking beauty, and the host of an incredibly successful t-v show! now heres's the rest of the game. do you think those were stacked? hmm. i don't know! here's the game right now. there will be more later, but you get to discard one card. call it out. judson. >> i.q. of 80.

don't want that? >> don't want the bad health? >> all right. thank you very much. we have discarded some cards. we're left with some cards and we've got to figure out if god plays favorites? does he? up next.

>> god, my question is, why do you play favorites? why are some people blessed with so many advantages? it's not necessarily the ones that merit it that receive it.

that's my question, god, is why do you play favorites? >> i think that he would probably say that he doesn't play favorites, and it's just a test to see your faith, to see how much you can handle. >> if i were god, i guess i would say i let life happen. >> he created everything and lets the things run on their own to a certain degree. >> that's my question. >> i would ask god, too, not only why do you play favorites or why do you punish people for some things? >> it might seem like he plays favorites but he is just trying to iewtion others to help out other situations thaw don't even know about. >> in a past life you might have been in a different position. >> in this life, you retain

things back. >> he puts things in our lives so we grow from them and become more mature. >> there's a reason for everything. people who like to have a lot, they are learning a different lesson than people with nothing. >> because he has a quote tow. so many people have to have problems and so. people have to have a good life. i guess he just picks. >> so, god, do you play favorites? we are back on the street there, and some people were answering say maybe yes, maybe no, but it sure seems like it. now, we were playing a game just now. you were dealt some car cards and you discarded. we had a discard from judson of mute, which is good, because now you can speak. you discarded the card you were dealt, the secret battle with depression, aja, and mark, you had chronic bad health. you don't want that? are you sure, you want to reconsider that? so we have those in the discard pile and we'll be coming back to those cards.

there is more to this game than you may have imagined. now, what about this business? it seems like god is playing favorites when things are different among us? >> some might say that brad pitt is a favorite and an gel lean navmen everything is appearance. >> okay, moving along. >> who are the people we see as having favorites? so you are saying movie stars? >> id be beyonce. >> trump has a lovely sound to it. >> i don't want his hair! >> you want his money but not his hair! >> it sun deniable god did something different. i wonder if he's up to somethi something. so, it's different. let's say it is different, but

what if in some ways this is supposed to work together, but if i keep thinking it's different, am i going to figure it out or just suck on lem mons the rest of my life and say woe is me. >> if i see you with more money or more hair, then i will think i'm not worthless. >> there are different times where different people feel like favorites. my father had a great story about two guys carrying heavy loads up a mountain and they stop at plateau to stop for the night. they complain about how heavy their loads are. in the morning, they each pick up their own load. there is a unique way, as much as we might want to be somebody else, deep down inside, we're saying, as much acid's like that, i think i will stay with the devil i know instead of the one i don' i don't know. >> if you ask a guy sleeping under a bridge with his leg amputated, he would not say in the morning i would love to be

brad pitt. how do you differentiate if someone's going to want to stay in that position or if they could change, would they change? would you change? >> you're asking a question of me about if the guy under the bridge without the leg had the perspective from god's point of view about what life was like or the ebdz end of life was about, he might not want to be anything other than what god has given them and work it through. two people articulated it really well. it is a matters of believing that there is a grander scheme in life as to what the cards mean. the story isn't over just with the circumstances that we have. my story hasn't been told. when i look at cards i have, the story is unwritten. even wealthy people in past generations, when you mentioned trump. what about howard hughs? we know how his life ended. it was pitiful, pathetic. he had all that wealth and he ended up a recluse.

>> is it fair to have to come back from defending our country and have to sleep under a bridge s that fair? >> no, straight up. >> i disagree. maybe it has to be fair. maybe that's your lot. maybe you're supposed to ax fect somebody. >> you can't make me see that if i'm in a wheelchair sleeping under a bridge. >> you deal with it. >> so you're telling me, whatever you got dealt, if you don't like it, that doesn't help the situation. >> this is my karma, this is my lot. i think god gives us a free will and a choice to make decisions about how we of a feiveght life. you can let life happen or make it life. >> seeing lifing in other people as a favorite is not going to help you make things happen. >> we reap what we sow. >> what does scripture say about

favoritism? does god play favorites? that's our question. >> there's one scripture that comes to mind that jeremiah says before you were formed in the belly of your mother's womb, i knew you and had a plan for you. >> are you saying god is the dealer, god is dealing those cards? >> i think he is a just dealer -- yes, no? >> the problem is we're living in a simple world. if you're going to argue what does god do in the scheme of things or eternity, yes, he is fair. in a world where people are not nearly what god wants, we're going to experience inequities and suffer the consequences of other people's sins, but god is not the one that sun fair. >> a baby addicted to crack cocaine, was that god dealing. >> card?

>> i think it was. >> i disagree. >> tell us. >> i don't think god would make somebody pick up a crack pipe and be impregnated with a child. that's ridiculous to think that. >> we have free will, and my free will is what allowed me to pick up the crack pipe. >> but i'm the baby. i didn't have free will in that matter. >> god dealt you that card. >> that is a as a result of that mother. await a second! >> can you help them for a while? they need some help. >> help my perspective here. jesus, why was this man born blind? jesus says it's not any of his fault. he praises the glory of god. there's a reason. there's a reason, so is god

connected to that reason? is he favored with this malady? does god have a reason? >> the question that is raised, did his mother and father sin? >> jesus is answering that question. >> you're absolutely right. god is the prime cause of all things but there are secondary causes for things it. we have to deal with those things. the secondary causes mean that we have a responsibility through free will to work with those secondary causes an take responsibility for them. >> is this a navy versus army type of thing going on now? >> so, it does look like there are favorites but maybe not? >> i think that word favorite, the definition of it in our culture is one thing compared to god's definition. does god play favorites? >> does god play favorites? >> he does not give equal money. he does not give equal health.

he does not give equal opportunity. here is what he gives that is equal -- the image of god is fully present in every human being. that, everybody gets. >> say that thing again, but say it to a guy with cornrows halfway down his britches. how would you tell that guy that the equal thing is the image. >> i would show him. i wouldn't use words. >> that's good. i would be with the man, work with him, find a way for him to discover that he is equal. >> if my leg is cut off, i still have the image thing. >> take all my body parts away, i still have the image of god. that image is marred until you deal with the person in jesus -- what image? >> the image of god. >> we're seeing that god is playing favorites, seeing that he is dealing crack babies and that our perspective is marred. >> sure, sure, sure. >> that's right. one of the ways that it's been

marred is that we see the wicked prospering and that's an important question we will deal with of a are ter the break. why dot wicked prosper?

>> good, why do bad things always happen to good people? there are all these wicked people out here, people that even worship the devil, and they are getting all the money, and they are actually enjoying life, and i'm stuck here just struggling with my finances. i'm on borderline broke. i mean, why do bad things always happen to good people. imnot perfect but i'm not a

deplorable person, you know. it seems like you're never here. are you even here? >> god, this just doesn't seem fair. bad people doing bad things, getting good things, why do the wicked prosper? do you want to help us with this? >> it's funny, you're not the first person to ask that question. king david asked that question, and he said -- he's looking and saying, why did the wicked prosper? >> it doesn't make sense. >> god gave him an answer later on in psalm 73, he said when he finally came into the presence of god and had god's perspective on what reality really is, he began to understand that what we judge as success, what we judge as prosper, and what we judge as happiness in light of what god has for us totally evaporates. >> how can we get that

perspective now? how can that help me now? >> when you look at it, the young guy said something really cool. he said, god, you have all these bad people. i'm struggling from for my finances. one of the reasons wicked people prosper is because they save their money. people in church don't. they spend it all and then say i'm broke. >> i don't buy that. >> you're answering the question from your sper speck tiff, but the fact of the matter is my perspective is, i don't know how good this guy is or how bad this guy s quite frankly, people who do downright evil things get good things not because they're prosperous or they work hard. >> why? >> because they ripped you off, man! >> it's the results of their wickedness. >> effort, you know, god created a world. effort causes a result, good or

bad, it does. >> but it also rains on the just and unjust. >> it does. i'm watching a woman on tv singing, and she couldn't sing worth a lick. i like to sing but this was something. i said baby, she can't sing at all. my wife said yeah, but you're watching her. she got out there and auditioned. they took her track somewhere and here i am with the gifts an my effort doesn't compare to her, but now i think she's prospering, and the reality is that i didn't do what he gave me to do, and so now someone else looks better. >> how about your feelings of criticizing her or feelings of jealousy? >> the real question is how do we get that perspective? how do we get david's perspective? >> how do we get it?

>> first he looked at how hard it of the to achieve. people were, in fact, doing better than him. he wrestled with it and then took the time to get in god's presence. >> he was rich and powerful. it's a valid question. the reality, though, is no matter what the the perspective is, in terms of whether you're wealthy or not wealthy, there is a question as to how evil can be rewarded in this world. why would a bad person succeed? you're saying fairness. if god is fair and things are the way they are, bad people shouldn't succeed, only good people should succeed. >> not just individual people but there are have's and have not's. there are regions in the world that are have not's suffering. what does god say about that? >> god does talk