Why didn't God intervene in Aberfan? Greg Stevenson offers some thoughts on the classic question of why suffering is allowed.

Many people suffer disasters from external events that come unbidden into their lives, from illness or injuries (whether caused by ourselves or by others), to overwhelming events such as volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, or extremes of weather like flooding. The natural question that is always asked is: Why? - as if we know that there must be a reason!

The Bible tells us clearly that God is in complete control of his world and its events. There is no god beside him (Isa 45:14, 21). Indeed, he intervenes in many situations to save, to heal, to deliver. So it's a good question to ask when disasters happen - where is God? Why does he allow it?

God Calls and Forewarns

The Bible tells us that God is righteous in all his works and holy in all his ways (Ps 145:17). So this means that everything God does and allows is for righteous reasons. What were the righteous reasons for which he allowed the terrifying tragedy in Aberfan 50 years ago?

When we look at God's dealings with his people Israel, we find that he gave them teaching and instruction (Torah) by which to live, so that the nations roundabout could see a righteous lifestyle that resulted in prosperity and security. When his people failed to live up to this standard, he disciplined them in all sorts of ways (1 Chron 21:13) to bring them back to him, and maintain this witness.

Many of these efforts to discipline were Sovereignly-ordained events (storms, pestilence, earthquakes, enemy attacks, etc), but several were the product of the people's own sin, including their blindness or deafness to his teaching/commandments.

Yet we see that God gave his Name (his character) to his people so that they might know him (Ex 34:6 – the most quoted verse in the Tanakh): "The LORD, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished". This speaks of the love and justice of God. So in each case of their turning away from him through sin (and consequently stepping outside of his blessing and protection), he gave them warnings about the consequences of their actions – Choose whom you will serve!

God is righteous and holy in all his ways, so this means that everything he does and allows is for righteous reasons.

The warnings were given so that they knew ahead of time the results of their choice. But when the warnings were ignored, God was patient with them. Again and again he called to them – "I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen. I called you but you did not answer. Day after day, again and again, I sent you my servants the prophets" (Jer 7:13, 25 – Heb. 'rising up early in the morning, and speaking'). He also sent examples of his sovereign power to bless or curse (Amos 4).

Aberfan: Warnings Ahead of Time

According to a recent BBC documentary,¹ the tragic events in Aberfan on 21 October 1966 that killed 116 children and 28 adults were preceded by many warnings:

1. 1939. A few miles from Aberfan, 180,000 tons of a coal waste tip in a privately-owned mine slipped. New guidelines about tipping over a water source were given, but not passed on.
2. 1944. Another tip near Aberfan moved.
3. January 1955. Flooding in the valley below the mountain of tip No 7 above Aberfan. The children presented a petition to their headmistress about the slurry moving, which was passed on, but ignored.
4. 1963. A slurry movement that didn't quite reach the village. Tipping on the site of No 7 tip was continued. No map or guidance was given to the engineers responsible for No 7 tip.
5. July 1963. A letter from Merthyr Tydfil council was sent to the National Coal Board (NCB) concerning the danger from coal waste being tipped above the Pantglas school. Despite assurances that tipping would cease, it was not stopped.
6. January 1964. Again concern was expressed by the council about the slurry - "If the tip moved, the entire school could be threatened"
7. January 1965. A petition was raised by mothers at the Pantglas school, and passed to the council by the headmistress. But there was no NCB action resulted.
8. 26 March 1965. A further slip at a nearby tip nearly went down the mine shaft. Warnings were given but ignored. The memo was sent to the civil and mechanical engineers but poor working relationships resulted in the memo not being followed up. A long list of concerns was sent to a senior NCB official about the tip safety but was not forwarded to the NCB.

Finally, the main reasons given by the NCB for not moving the No 7 tip after the disaster were the cost and the time it would take. In the Tribunal, senior NCB management denied any knowledge of the potential for slips from coal waste tips, but eventually changed their stance and admitted that the disaster was preventable. Of the £1.75 million that was raised for the disaster fund, £150,000 was taken from the fund for removal of the tip, and the NCB agreed to pay £500 for each child who died was offered as compensation (the value of a child's life?).

This list is not given to apportion blame, but to emphasise that God gives many warnings of the consequences of man's selfish and sinful ways. George Bernard Shaw said appositely: "The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. For that is the essence of inhumanity". Much is sacrificed to financial profit, and safeguarded by keeping a distance from the site of responsibility.

Whenever people turn away from God, stepping outside of his blessing and protection, he gives them warnings about the consequences of their sin.

Natural Disaster - or Natural Consequence?

Some of what we call 'natural' disasters are clearly the result of the shaking of the earth (and eventually the heavens also) that God has warned us of in Hebrews 12, and Scripture tells us that these tragedies are part of the birth-pangs that will bring in the end of this age. The whole creation has been 'groaning' as in the pains of childbirth, on account of man's sin.

But many disasters are the result of man's selfishness, or of rebellion against God's laws, and these are especially severe among nations that God has blessed and called to serve him, but which then turn away from him in disobedience.

God is sovereign, but he warns us about the consequences of the choices we make. Paul's letter to the Romans is very clear about this. Those who reject his way, he will give over to their 'shameful lusts' and to the consequences of those choices. But his love is always expressed by warnings first, proclaimed by those who see right action, so that mercy and justice can be evident. This was perfectly demonstrated in the life of Jesus, and ultimately at the Cross.

In order to avoid a potential tragedy from self-seeking in many forms, or from indifference to our fellow-man, we (individuals, families, businesses, governments and nations) simply have to set the choices that we make against the goodness and righteousness of God. In this, Jesus is our model.

We can't always know why God allows disasters (why he brings prosperity and creates disaster – Isaiah 45:7) but we do know that he desires to dwell with us, and that we live in his blessing and under his protection.

We cannot know the whole answer, but God has done all that is necessary to deal with our sin, our self, and our indifference, at the Cross. As we expend time, energy and resources for those who are caught up in the tragedies and disasters that are part of this fallen world, we can remember that what God does is always for righteous reasons, even when it takes the form of allowing loss, pain and death. For he has been there himself also.

References

1 Aberfan: The Fight for Justice. BBC, first broadcast on 18 October 2016. Available on iPlayer.

Clifford Denton, whose wife Christine's family come from Aberfan, comments on the tragedy from a personal perspective.

On Friday 21 October 1966 I was travelling home from Cornwall on weekend leave from the RAF to visit my parents in South Wales, when the news on my car radio was dominated by the report of the Aberfan disaster. There are many disasters to face in the world but this was one that shocked our entire nation.

On the long car drive I resolved to go up to Aberfan, just an hour away from my parents' home, and join in the relief effort. This was especially poignant because my fiance's aunt had until quite recently been the headmistress of Pantglas Junior School, which suffered most in the catastrophe.

By the time my fiance and I arrived in Aberfan to join the hundreds of others who threw a spade into their car boot in order to do what we could, it was pitch black at night - to add to the black of the dark slurry that had engulfed this mining village. The darkness was only punctuated by the lights here and there where earth-moving machinery was operating. We did our best with our spades, in the slippery slurry on that wet night, but it was literally only scratching the surface in an emotional gesture. It was the professionals who completed the task over the next few days but it was all too late to save any lives, and the death toll mounted.

We went to Auntie Flor's house in Merthyr to wash the coal from our weary bodies, staying the night to bring some consolation to her as she remembered teaching staff with whom she had taught over many years and recalled many of the children who had died. Through the night, as we lay on our beds trying to rest, the clock she had received as a retirement present from the school chimed each hour.

We did our best with our spades, but it was literally only scratching the surface in an emotional gesture.

Looking Back

Since that day we have visited Aberfan a number of times. It is where my wife's family grave is situated, not far from where all those children from the disaster are buried.

Auntie Flor spent the last days of her life living with us in Banbury and I talked to her very much about life in Aberfan when she was a child in the early 1900s. Her family lived in a typical miner's cottage. She spoke of the Welsh Revival and of how every Sunday in those days every single person, except the sick and bedridden, went to Chapel – a river of people filling the streets on their way to Sunday Service.

Her father had been a deacon in Merthyr Vale Baptist Church and worked as a supervisor on the pithead of the local mine – the very mine that decades later would build up tip number 7, the fateful tip that was unsafe due to accumulation of water.

"When did all that end?" I asked her once, referring back to the picture of all those mining families moving as one to Chapel on Sunday. "Oh, it all changed after the Great War", was her answer. All communities of Britain suffered shock in that terrible war, and outward expressions of faith faded. How often this happens - doubts creep in about the Living God when trials hit us severely. So it is that the Aberfan disaster was and still is, 50 years on, a challenge to faith.

Why Does God Allow Such Things?

The question, "Why suffering?" is asked in every generation, especially when a disaster strikes of the immensity of that which came to Aberfan, when a generation of children was all but wiped out in one horrendous blow. Where was God on that day? Why did he allow it to happen?

We can all give opinions on the answer to these questions, but they challenge most deeply when we ourselves or our family, or indeed our entire community, is the subject of devastation. Did we do something wrong? The question is even harder to answer when a large percentage of the 116 children who lost their lives attended local churches. What do we learn?

Aberfan enjoyed revival in the early 1900s, but this all changed after the shock of the first world war.

The answer is clearer from the Bible than we often think. It is nevertheless a difficult truth to hold on to in times of trouble. We live in a fallen world where mankind exercises free will. God's purpose is to restore to himself for eternity those who seek to walk with him. That walk is in an alien world until the time that the Kingdom of God will come in fully. Then, but only then, will all pain and suffering cease.

Nevertheless, God has not left us isolated. He spoke to us through the prophets of Israel in ways that are recorded in our Bibles. His greatest commandments are to love him and to love one another. Our love for one another sets a high priority on care for one another. He makes it clear that neglect of care can leave blood on our hands for the lives of others.

More than this, he has shown that he shares in our pain. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, seeing what would come on his people following a large-scale rejection of him, he showed that our pain is also his pain. If this was not enough his suffering on the cross, so that all who would believe would have a place reserved for them in heaven for all eternity, proved his great love for us.

Every one of the people who died in Aberfan was known individually by God and he knows their eternal destiny. His sorrow for the neglect of the mine-owners, who created an unsafe tip cutting corners on safety for financial reasons, matches the sorrow of the bereaved.

When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and then endured the Cross, he showed that our pain is also his pain.

Tests of Faith

As well as testimonies of doubts springing from the disaster of Aberfan there are also many testimonies of faith despite the pain. We can be thankful that God knew those many children who regularly attended the local churches and chapels and who had just come from their school assembly having sung the hymn 'All things bright and beautiful' prior to their deaths. Some from the community continue in our day to speak of good that came from the disaster, looking back over these 50 years. Though there is pain, continuing to reach out in trust to God is the good and right thing to do.

Those who suffer most in such disasters are the immediate family members, but surely next to them would be surviving teachers who had everyday contact with many of the children.

I can say for retired headmistress Miss Florence Havard that her faith never failed her right through her life. She died well into her 80s and she was always a beacon of light in the Christian community – in fact she was quite a character especially loved by children. She was able to balance, grow and maintain that faith that was born in the Welsh revival and matured through days of trial, through wars, national depression (which hit mining communities as strongly as any) and also a major disaster in her home town of Aberfan.

We Must All Take Responsibility

There is another twist in this story, however. The local MP, SO Davies, was a personal friend of Miss Havard. Mr Davies would often call around to her bungalow in Merthyr - one can only conjecture whether they had ever discussed that tip which hovered over the community, threatening to fall one day. At the tribunal, Mr Davies said he had often thought the tip was unsafe but been reluctant to bring it up officially, knowing there would be consequences for the work of miners in the community.

Following the disaster, it also came to light that the local Council had been warned about the tip in 1964 by one of its Councillors. The following year, two parents who also recognised the warning signs petitioned the then headmistress of Pantglas Junior School. She faithfully raised this at succeeding council meetings, but to no avail. Sadly, both the headmistress and children of those two parents all lost their lives in the disaster.

However small a contribution to the responsibility for not averting the disaster, does this not speak of shared responsibility much wider than the main colliery leaders and politicians involved? From the bottom to the top of society we must listen to one another and work together for the care and safety of all – this is in fulfilment of the second Great Commandments to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Can we learn something about this for the days ahead? Are we not corporately responsible for the safety of one another in our communities? Should this not be of the highest priority, especially when the world is becoming more and more unstable, when leadership is weakening and when finance is driving decisions more than care of one another?

Is it not God's intent that we all learn something from the lives that were needlessly lost and the families so sadly bereaved 50 years ago in Aberfan?

As well as testimonies of doubts springing from the disaster of Aberfan there are also many testimonies of faith despite the pain.

God Did and Does Speak

I would like to conclude by drawing attention to two poignant comments.

They both bring tears to the eyes - perhaps God still speaks to us through them this very day. We know from the story of Isaiah that God is not always to be found in the earthquake, fire and storm, but if we walk closely with him, he will be found speaking in the still quiet voice – a voice that comes prophetically from sometimes unexpected sources. Surely the following indicates that God did speak prior to the Aberfan disaster.

The first is the well-known story of Eryl Mai Jones (which has often been interpreted wrongly as psychic insight):

In early October 1966, a ten-year-old Welsh schoolgirl named Eryl Mai Jones had something important to tell her mother.

"Mummy," she said, "I'm not afraid to die."
"You're too young to be talking about dying," her mother said. "Do you want a lollipop?"
On October 20, Eryl Mai woke up after having a memorable dream.
"Mummy, let me tell you about my dream last night," she said.
"Darling, I've no time now. Tell me again later."
"No, Mummy, you must listen," she said. "I dreamt I went to school and there was no school there. Something black had come down all over it".¹

Her mother thought nothing more about the dream...Eryl Mai went off to Pantglas Junior School that day as usual. Nothing unusual happened. The next day, Friday, October 21, she did the same. But at 9:15 that morning, the coal tip gave way, sending tons of coal sludge, water, and boulders onto the village below. The avalanche mowed down everything in its path, including stone houses and trees, and swept toward the Pantglas School, where it crushed the back of the school.

In answer to the question, "Where was God on that day?" the answer is surely, both warning us and with us through this troubled world, offering help where needed, suffering with us on this journey to the day that is not yet but one day will be, of a New Heaven and a New Earth.

The second quote is, to me, both metaphor of shared sufferings which God was fully part of, shared by God and expressed through human love at its highest level midst the trials of this earth. Quoting from the website of Richard Poole, who lost a cousin in the Aberfan tragedy:

144 people died in the Aberfan disaster: 116 of them were school children. About half of the children at Pantglas Junior School, and five of their teachers, were killed. In one classroom 14 bodies were found and outside mothers struggled deep in mud, clamouring to find their children. Many were led away weeping.
The deputy head teacher, Mr Beynon, was found dead. "He was clutching five children in his arms as if he had been protecting them," said a rescuer.²

References

1 Precognition: The Aberfan Disaster. James M Deen, with reference to Barker, J.C. Premonitions of the Aberfan Disaster. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, December 1967: 168-181.

2 Ray Poole's Family History: Merythr Vale and Aberfan.