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Tuesday, April 10, 2012

A Defamation of (Non)Hell (Cult)ure



I guess if I was an evangelical I would be a little concerned about all these lights and cameras and shows and bands and coffee gatherings and fads and appeals to hip fashion, because quite frankly, it would all be a terrible cover-up of the awful, glaring reality of an eternity spent in unending torment for those not "in." I guess I would want my art and presentation and gatherings to reflect this terrible reality rather than my glorious, selfish "in-ness" because I wouldn't want to hide the truth from those who are "perishing."

So why do people cover this awful reality up?

The answer is simple: we as humans cannot bare it. When I was young, I could barely sustain any amount of time thinking about unending torment in my mind, no matter what justification I attempted to give it. The more I thought about it, the more atheistic I would feel. I had to block it out. I had a friend who told me he would lose sleep over this doctrine, have horrible nightmares over it, and remembers running into the other room away from his family once to cry his eyes out over it because it seemed so cruel and horrible to his young mind. He was forever scarred and traumatized.

Even the thought of it traumatizes us, so the actual experience would have to be so much worse.

The doctrine of eternal conscious torment is so horrible and traumatic that no one can stand to dwell on it for long. Consequently, we as human beings know naturally that it is harmful and unhealthy (not to mention downright immoral) to parade this doctrine around and center our religious gatherings on it.

Which is exactly why I cannot and never could believe in such a doctrine. If being a Christian means that I must believe this, I don't want in now and never will. If it is not healthy and life-enhancing, what good is it? How can we possibly believe it without a little borderline insanity?

"Whatever diminishes life is evil, and whatever enhances life is good." John Shelby Spong

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