You Will Burn in Hell Forever, Unless....
By Sandi Magathan Droubay
HELL IS HOT, HOT, HOT
THOUSANDS OF DEGREES HOT
AND NOT A DROP OF WATER !!!
THE BURNING HELL: TORTURED LOST SOULS BURNING FOREVER
This is an example of one of those tracts that radical Christians hand out, or hide in books at the library or in book stores. Most of these tracts are published by CHICK Publications out of Ontario California. The Rad Christians in my hometown also like to hand these out downtown during the weekend when people are gathering in the public parks and restaurants or at the Symphony to enjoy the company of one another, have a nice meal and attend a cultural event or dance their booties off at the club. Apparently if one is doing any of these things they are opening themselves to "sinning" so they must be warned about the dangers awaiting them in the dark of night. I've been collecting these for quite awhile and I'm planning on making a collage out of them entitled " FEAR." How do you like the title? I'm open to other suggestions.
This particular tract goes on to inform the reader that "Jesus Christ believed in a BURNING HELL, that is why he left the Father's bosom and came to the world of sorrow." It goes on to say that " One day in HELL you will not have to be bothered by some Christian trying to give you a gospel tract---you will be crying and begging for one drop of water to cool your scorching tongue." Hell is a barbecue and you are the main entre'e, forever. They like their meat well done.
Rad Christians seem to believe that FEAR is the best way to bring one to God. Their key virtue is obedience, and if your God is a fearful God then obedience is mandatory, and you, a pitiful, puny, sinful creature, have no right whatsoever to question His authority. One of their favorite stories in the Hebrew bible is the one where God commands Abraham to offer up his favorite son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. This story, according to their interpretation, is all about obedience; unquestioning obedience to authority. If you were a tyrant and wanted to rule over a mindless, docile population this is the kind of god you would invent. Authority is to be obeyed no matter what. As above, so below; they believe that a hierarchal structure is the natural way of life. God over man, man over woman, parents over children, and humans over all of the earth and everything it contains.
This worldview represents one form of Christianity. They believe it to be the only true form of Christianity. Therein lies the problem. It is not the only form nor is it the one true form of Christianity. That's right: it is a mental construct that some believe to be their truth, and that's just fine for them. Let them live in fear and obedience to authority, some people need that as they cannot or will not trust their own decisions. However, that is not the God I believe in. Keep your tracts to yourself and get out of my face. I have a spiritual life and a set of principals I live by and I do not assume my beliefs are true and correct for everyone. I came by these beliefs through my life experience. How dare anyone assume they know better than I what I should believe.
Powerful Corporations, Radical Christians and Radical Conservatives (or Radcons, as Robert Reich refers to them) have formed an unholy trinity and they are now the power brokers in this country. They are self righteous, arrogant and power mad---now how are we going to bring them down? They believe we "Liberals" are wusses and they use our belief in tolerance against us. We don't need to be tolerant of them or their worldview. We need to become comfortable with the legitimacy of our own belief system; the main difference is that we do not assume to proscribe those beliefs to them!!! That is freedom, and it's worth fighting for. We will not win through hate or fear, but through embracing the values we as Americans stand for, the very values they; the Rad Christians, the Radcons and the corporations have abused in the name of power.
After 9/11 many Americans were asking "Why do they hate us?" Bush informed us that they hate us because of our love of freedom. Sure.They don't hate us because of what we are, they hate us because of what we do. They hate us because we have abused our power for the sake of big business; we plunder the earth of all its resources and our corporations use the labor of others for personal gain. They, the people of the Middle East, see us as arrogant and greedy. All people want and desire freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility. Are we acting responsibly? I think not.
The Rad Christians have co-opted the terminology, they have defined what being a Christian means; they have defined God and patriotism. Their definitions are very narrow and if you do not agree with their definition and fall in line with their way of thinking you are a non-believer, a backslider, immoral and doomed. The Radcons, have also co-opted certain words and symbols and made them their own. They have vilified the word "liberal," and it has worked; have you noticed how quickly politicians run away from that word? They, the Radcons, own the flag, or so they believe, and they are the real patriots. It's time to redefine the terms and symbols and take them back: they have been abused long enough.
I read this account somewhere, and I wish I could remember where: it seems that Pat Robertson was being interviewed by a woman, and if my memory serves me correctly, it was not in this country. Anyway she asked him his opinion on an important issue; he told her he had prayed about that very issue and God had told him to take this particular stance. She looked him right in the eye and told him that she too had prayed and God had told her something completely different !! Apparently he was dumbstruck and didn't know what to say. What could he do, tell her she was wrong ??? Oh, how I wished I could have seen his face. Imagine. Many Rad Christians believe that those of us who do not subscribe to their worldview have no spiritual life whatsoever, if our morals are not their morals, then according to them, we are either immoral or amoral.
What is prayer? The definition of prayer, I believe is much broader than what Rad Christians would subscribe to. A walk in the woods can be an act of prayer, meditation and contemplation are a form of prayer, celebrating the Seder is an act of prayer, studying the Torah is an act of prayer, chanting the lotus sutra is a form of prayer. Listening to music, writing a poem -- I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Athletes speak of being "in the zone," a point when they are no longer a person striving for perfection but become perfection itself. Artists experience the same thing. Prayer is a means of becoming one with that creative power of the universe, whatever name we call it. You know it when you feel it. Rad Christians do not own this experience.
And what of God, do the Rad Christians own God? No. They believe they do. Their God is found in the vision of an overarching authority figure, a cruel and judgmental God. A God I cannot accept or believe in. As Bishop Spong has stated; the God found in the literal translation of the Bible; --offers me a God I cannot respect, much less worship; a deity whose needs and prejudices are at least as large as my own. I meet in the literal understanding of scripture a God who is simply not viable, and what the mind cannot believe the heart can finally never adore."
During an interview with Diane Sawyer, Mel Gibson told her that although his wife was a better person than he was she would not go to heaven, because she was an Episcopalian. He, on the other hand would be welcomed at the pearly gates because he is a Catholic"".I know, what can one say to that. On Larry King Live, Larry asked Billy Graham if he would be denied entrance to heaven because he was Jewish; Billy, sadly, informed him that unless he accepted the Lord as his savior he would be denied entrance, he would go to hell. According to Rad Christians, whose God is a small god, and whose heaven is an exclusive country club, Mahatma Gandhi is in hell, simply because he was a Hindu, regardless of the good he did in his life.
Do the Rad Christians and Radcons have a monopoly on patriotism? Once again they have defined the terminology and claimed the symbols. At the beginning of the war in Iraq a demonstration was held in my hometown, a demonstration for those who supported the war. Everyone had a flag, they were carrying them, had them plastered all over their gas-guzzling SUV'S, on their shirts, their kids, their foreheads, everywhere. There was a lot of hyper-patriotic speaking, lots of testosterone flowing and then they knelt in prayer. God and country. Yep. Later they all had mom's apple pie.
I wonder what would happen if a bunch of Liberals organized a march against something really immoral, say against the outsourcing of jobs overseas, and we all showed up carrying the flag. What would they think? They, the Radcons and Rad Christians, would be so confused, they'd probably join in and march along. Liberals, after all, don't do that kind of thing. Everyone knows that Liberals hate the flag and the country. That's what Rush has been telling everyone for years, so it must be true.
Perhaps we should do that -- take back the symbols and redefine what God and country is all about. The Religious Left, unorganized to the extent that the Rad Christians are, know that the concept of God is much broader than the God the Rad Christians worship. The Religious Left would encompass a greater diversity of people, it would include Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Pagans etc. They could be quite a force.
The Radcons and their buddies the Rad Christians tend to focus more on private sexual immorality. We impeached a president because of a sex scandal which he lied about. As if that was some kind of new and strange behavior, most people do lie when they cheat on their spouses. They don't seem to be as offended by public acts of immorality, such as corporate lying and abuse, or the lies our government told us about Iraq and why we are sending our young men and women there to fight and die. Why are we really there? Who is profiting from this war? How about those tax cuts for the super rich, which have further strangled the middle class. These are all issues of morality. Since the Rad Christians are silent about these acts of immorality it would seem that we need a vigorous and organized Religious Left to call attention to these issues and declare them to be immoral; loudly.
.
The Rad Christians do not have a monopoly on values, morals or God.
The Radcons do not have a monopoly on values, morals, or patriotism.
The corporations do not have a monopoly". Well, they are monopolies.
We are living in an oligarchy bordering on a theocracy. As Robert Reich states in his latest book "Reason" the right-wing fringe of the Republican Party are " Bible-thumpers, nativists, racists, free-market fundamentalists and rabid ant-communists." These people now control all three governmental levels, they have infiltrated school boards and make up much of our nation's courtrooms. Reich goes on to say that these Radcons have " intense convictions" which is part of their strength, they are "passionate about the righteousness of their cause" and they believe they " represent the forces of good in a war against evil"They have usurped the basic American values of morality, prosperity and patriotism."
Time to take our country back, folks. These fanatics who are in charge of our government are dangerous. Trying to organize the Religious Left may be like trying to herd cats, but we need a strong, organized group of united religious people to counter the power of the Rad Christians.
I've been feeling rather discouraged about the state of my country these days, things seem to be spiraling our of control and we are being lied to constantly, my children may end up in Iraq is this war goes on much longer. I think of all those parents who have already lost their children to this war, I think of all the families that had their loved ones beheaded in the last several weeks. I don't believe things are safer, we have actually increased the anger many feel towards us. We need a change.
So, I will close with these words from Gandhi:
"When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won."
Sandi Magathan Droubay Droubay2@cox.net is a "bleeding-heart" Liberal and proud of it. She lives on the Gulf Coast and worships the beach.
