This church wants to scare the hell out of you: 9-26-19

This past weekend here on the blog, I reviewed the fascinating new book, That All Shall Be Saved, by Christian Orthodox scholar David Bentley Hart, who argues that an eternal hell for everlasting torment doesn't exist and that the idea of it was simply made up by Christian leaders as a tool of fear.

Hart's opinion about hell is, at least judging by official theological declarations across Christianity, in the minority. But his notion that fear of hell is used as a controlling mechanism can be confirmed in lots of churches on any given Sunday.

And not just on Sundays, it turns out. As this story from Fort Smith, Ark., shows, some churches put on elaborate events focused on hell.

As the story reports, "The 'Heaven or Hell Drama 2019' event will be staged nightly at 7 p.m. Oct. 16-20 at Evangel Temple’s new building. . ." This will be the 26th annual event. (Does any of you want to go? If you do go, please report back.)

And as the pastor says, one reason the church built a new building is "because when we would put on these dramas in the past, we would have to turn away over 500 people a night due to space; that just broke our hearts. . ."

The story doesn't make clear exactly what the plot, if any, of the drama will be, but it looks for all the world as if someone or several someones are going to be confronted with life choices that could lead them to be sentenced to the lake of fire in hell for all eternity. Nobody wants that, so the fear of such an outcome may lead people to join the church and get on the winning side.

The church's media director cautions people about bringing small children: "this production is good for those who are 10 or older, because there’s a lot of flames in hell, and there’s the presence of some demons in the production."

Flames, demons, 10-year-olds. What could go wrong?

Wouldn't it be more helpful to guide people toward living lives of mercy, compassion, justice and love? No doubt. But probably that's what the church thinks it's doing. Fear, after all, can be a great motivator.

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PROTECTING JEWISH WORSHIPERS

As the High Holidays start at sundown this Sunday, Jewish leaders are focusing more tightly on security at their synagogues, this RNS story reports. A recent rise in antisemitic violence is the cause. As the story notes, "shootings at a synagogue in California and a mosque in New Zealand, as well as the synagogue in Pittsburgh, have complicated and expanded synagogues’ security measures, not only at High Holidays but year-round." This adds to what often is called the cost of faithfulness.

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P.S.: And now just for fun: Speaking of hell, as I was above, a childhood friend of mine from India (I lived there two years as a boy), Markandey Katju, and I have been ping-ponging thoughts back and forth recently about hell. He's an atheist who puts no stock in the ideas of God, heaven or hell, but he's a fun writer and a thoughtful man, as one might expect from a former justice on India's Supreme Court. At any rate, I recently e-mailed him to say that the author of the book on hell I wrote about here believes atheists like Katju won't get sent to hell. Markandey, who recently arrived in California to visit his daughter, told me in response that he fully expects to be in hell and will be disappointed if I'm not there to keep him company. Then, because he thinks (as I do) that Native Americans have been unjustly bludgeoned by American history, he sent the short essay below, not dissimilar in tone, you'll note, from the stinging satire sometimes produced by Jonathan Swift. (Markandey jokingly calls me Reverend even though I'm not one.)

I have a dream

 

([I am] as certain a candidate for hell, being an atheist, as my former classmate, the God fearing Reverend Bill Tammeus, is for heaven with its 72 houris [Tammeus note: the term houris means virgins].)

 

I have a dream, that the paleface in America mucks off to Europe from where he came, so that my cousins, the native Americans (Red Indians), to whom America belongs, can live in peace in open spaces and are not confined to concentration camps called reservations, with their scalps still attached to their bodies, and not sold for $2 a piece, as the white man is accustomed to do.

 

I have a dream, that America is repopulated by decent people like my cousins, the Red Indians, who will invite the excess population in India to settle in America and teach the redskins IT and Yoga, and the cousins live happily in wigwams smoking peace pipes and drinking hot stuff with our squaws, under a government like the Iroquois Confederacy, the best kind of government invented as yet in the world.

 

I have a dream, that a huge wall is erected all around America, so that the white man is kept away and not allowed to ever come here again (except as tourists with euros to spend) with his evil habits of gambling, consuming drugs, prostitution, etc., and the Mafia is kept confined to Sicily.

 

I have a dream, that a few rare exceptions be made to this grand plan, such as permitting my friend the Reverend and his lovely wife, and Donald Trump, who is checking the greatest danger in the world, Chinese imperialism, to remain on this hallowed land, provided they promise to give up the nasty habit in the white man to be crazy about amassing dollars and collecting Red Indian scalps and making war on the world.