One of the most disheartening things in life is to find out that you have been manipulated. When you only imagine that you are making free choices, it is not true freedom. When I find out that someone has been pulling invisible strings in order to orchestrate a situation, I feel violated. It is never good even if in the short term I am benefited in some way. Manipulation of people or situations to set people up is a violation of human dignity. It is wrong. It is never the loving thing to do.
When I hear of people manipulating situations to get people to be persuaded to make certain choices it makes my skin crawl. I think the reason I hate it so much is that I have been the victim far too often. I've been enticed by marketing. I have fallen for the picture perfect sales pitch. I have been baited and switched. I've seen the cruel self serving backroom cooked up strategies to shape people and situations. Even with supposedly "noble" intentions all attempts at manipulation fall way short of a much higher central virtue of love. Love does not manipulate because love is not self seeking. Love does not violate the dignity of another person. Love is patient and kind. Love does not "cook-up" scenarios where people are manipulated. Love has no strings attached.
Jesus is the full revelation of a God who is essentially love. Jesus would not manipulate people or situations. He was guided by love in a pathway of love. By refusing to manipulate, be allowed some to follow and others to walk away. Some were healed. And some were not. He really couldn't heal those who didn't believe. He didn't wave a magic wand over the sick of a village. One by one they sought him to be healed. When he was welcomed, he stayed. When he was rejected and run out of town, he left. He refused to just put on a show (their demands for a sign). Love doesn't manipulate even when a close friend betrays you or abandons you. God in Jesus willingly died on a cross after being accused of various crimes. Primarily Jesus' message of the Kingdom of God was in conflict with the religious system (Temple religion) and it's leaders. The leaders knew the implication of Jesus' message on their power base and stability. But love did not manipulate. Love had rather die than use power to manipulate people and situations for itself.
Here is a question to ponder: what if God doesn't manipulate at all. What if love is His essential nature and He refuses to manipulate people and situations to suit His purposes? It sure would explain a lot of things:
Why such bad things happen sometimes
Our genuine existential freedom
The patience of God apparent in the flow of history
Injustices
The profound sense of connectedness that is felt when people really choose to love each other
What if we "feel" free while all the time "god" is manipulating the whole system? What if we parented our children that way? What if we rigged the situation continually with their environment and tricking them into making the choices we want them make? Imagine sending these children out into a world susceptible to the manipulation of the powerful and shrewd. Or even worse, learning how to do it to others. Training masterful manipulators by the example of manipulating parents. This would not be love no matter how it is justified.
Love trusts. No matter how you spin that, love involves risk. That is why love often hurts. Love can be rejected and spurned. There is real, not imagined, uncertainty in the world of free agents. Choosing to love another is real. Choosing to disappoint or hurt another is real too.
What kind of world is this? There are certainly tendencies we can predict with some high probabilities, but it is not predictable. Manipulation happens. Some forecasting is helpful. But people can also surprise you in big ways.
What kind of God full of love is interacting with this created world? Does God love in such a risking way so as not to manipulate His creatures? What if fatalism and determinism is a farce. Real time is real. Future is endless possibilities. Forecasting is helpful but surprises are certain in an open system with free participants.
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