The rhetoric of theology beyond theodicy, a note

The meaning of the idea of God does not include the principle that everything that happens is good, either in itself, or later, when some accounting is done that compensates and rectifies suffering and loss.

Perhaps it includes the principle that everything that happens can be understood and made sense of. More importantly, it includes the principle that duties are also desires, and that fulfilling moral obligations brings a certain pleasure. It is always possible that what you do is blessed; it is not always the case that what happens to you is just.

Therefore, 'religion' or the metaphysics and stories that ground our ethics and morals, is not governmental, only political.