Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hell

Last night I was watching a History Channel on Hell.

Fortuitously, now I see a story via yahoo news on a minister that answers the question: who's really in hell?

Apparently, no one.

I once entertained the idea of doing my graduate thesis on different versions of hell depicted in various cultures' literature.  I am still fascinated by the idea.

But what really scares me about this concept of hell, is that we humans like to place people there . . . even if we have no power to do so.

Here's what I mean by that

Bell, the pastor of the 10,000-member Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., lays out the premise of his book while the video cuts away to an artist's hand mixing oil paints and pastels and applying them to a blank canvas.

He describes going to a Christian art show where one of the pieces featured a quote by Mohandas Gandhi. Someone attached a note saying: "Reality check: He's in hell."

"Gandhi's in hell? He is? And someone knows this for sure?"

That's very Christian, right? Declaring Gandhi (of all people) is suffering eternal damnation in hell.  If Gadhi's in hell, who else must be there? 

No comments: