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Tuesday, 05 June 2007 16:36 |
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| Marc Mullinax |
ìWe need you God, for Heaven. Hell we can make for ourselves.î
ó Margaret Atwood
ï
MARS HILL ó Can you enjoy the love of God if you know that God does not love others?
Does the faith you practice involve Godís actively disloving others (always others, never oneís own self or group)? Are you convinced these others are off to a hell custom-made for them by God?
In other words, in what moral direction does your universe bend?
Towards strict justice and eye-for-an-eye distribution of
righteousness; or towards a grace-full understanding of life and of
life-situations, and an eye unto mercy?
According to my early Sunday-school teachers, a child who dies in
Darfur or Iran without Christian knowledge is denied entrance to heaven
merely for being born in a place where s/he could not attend church
regularly. I stopped having these teachers think for me, and began to
do it for myself when I realized how, under their ìgospel,î admission
to heaven is gained by the luck of where one is born.
This is not good to hear, or to speak. The message is based upon
unperfected love on our part. But forget us. As far as we know, only
human beings have been the ones to determine the population of hell.
Letís try to imagine a God who hates, who hates eternally, completely
and so well that he creates a special place to send his hated ones to
live everlastingly in punishment. And these hated ones, you parents,
are the very children he has created. Indeed, say some twisted versions
of predestination, God created people with the express pre-creation
purpose of sending them to this hell. Why? To make some point or other
about his ... love.
Altogether now, letís say: ìbatty.î
Imagine with me what our Bibles could look like. The Good Samaritan
would be damned for his wrong beliefs. John 3:16 would say, ìFor God so
loved some of the world...î
So is it better to love correctly, or to think correctly? On our part? Godís part?
Extremist haters are too undisciplined, too self-righteous or too
self-centered to live in the world and idealize a world free of
enemies. This is where President Bush and other extremists are (and I
include liberals who hate). I too have been there, and sometimes
mentally vacation in this utopia.
But no matter what the political or religious direction such idealists
choose, these extremist visions always share one telling
characteristic: In their utopias, heavens or brave new worlds, their
greatest personal weakness suddenly appears a strength. In a
puritanical ideology, any leader unable to love his neighbor or enemy
can suddenly sweep the entire world into the category of ìDamnedî and
pass himself off as ìSaved.î
Worst of all, he can publicly theologize that God sides with him,
sharing his same hatreds. This is too bad, for he is really exhibiting
the number-one symptom of hell-talk: fear of the present. Hell is
created by us, by fearful us.
How can one enjoy any bliss, here or hereafter, knowing that others are
in pain? How can any spirituality worthy of the
name not see the entire
universe as a gift, and therefore permanently and ultimately undamned?
Iíve written before that ìa little atheismî is always a sign of
healthy, positive faith. Therefore ó for Godís sake, literally ó we
must kill off these small gods that lead us into the temptation to
believe that fear-based hells await the unloved. The way I see it, God
comes first of all to the unloved, making them into friends, not
confirming them as enemies.
You may argue to your own satisfaction that Godís holiness involves the
separation of those who do not love God. Well, will the people who love
God completely (or even adequately) please stand up and receive your
due applause?
ï
Dr. Marc S. Mullinax, chairman of the philosophy and religion
departments at Mars Hill College, can be reached at mmullinax-at-mhc.edu.
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