MAYBE WE SHOULD RETHINK THIS

I recently returned from Missoula, Montana where I participated in a conference with the oxymoronic title "The Good News About Hell." Glen Moyer, who writes a weekly column in the Missoulian under the heading "The Adventures of Clothman" (http://www.clothman.com/) was the host. I shared in two of the sessions. The stated purpose of the conference was to expand the dialogue about the hell doctrine which assigns to eternal conscious torment all nonbelievers in Christ when they die.

In preparation for this conference, I learned some facinating things:
1. The Old Testament contains no references to the traditional Christian hell. A fact which most modern Bible translations acknowledge.
2. Most of Jesus' teaching about what some older English Bibles translate as "hell" was really about an actual place outside of Jerusalem known as Gehenna in the Greek. It was the city dump where once King Ahaz had led Israel in human sacrifice to the idol Molech and was regarded as a cursed place. There the fire never stopped burning and the maggots (worms) never died.
3. Only one of six schools of theology that rose to prominence in the first centuries after Christ taught any kind of eternal torment in the afterlife. The majority taught the doctrine of the restoration of all things as did the apostles of Jesus as indicated in Acts 3:21 and Colossians 1:19-20.
4. No sermon recorded in Acts (the first sermons of Christianity) mentions or threatens eternal damnation.
5. Neither the Apostles' Creed nor the Nicaean Creed, two of the earliest known formal creeds of Christianity, mention eternal damnation as the destiny of unbelievers.
6. The literal hell of eternal conscious torment did not appear as the "official" doctrine of the church until the 6th Century--500 years after Jesus sent his followers to spread the gospel or good news of his living example, teaching, death on the cross and resurrection.

Given the fact that hellfire and damnation preaching has gone the way of the 8 track in most churches today--because most pastors instinctively sense there is something wrong with the notion that a loving God would doom the majority of the human race to eternal hell--I, and many others, believe it is time we revisit this horrible doctrine and assign it to the trash heap of history with other church dogmas that have been discarded such as justified slavery, inferiority of women, the earth is the center of the universe, and many others.

Dog Park Spirituality

During the holidays I learned of a couple who own a giant Great Dane dog that they frequently take to a nearby dog park. There the dog is allowed to run freely and frolic with other dogs--different breeds, large and small. Amazingly, most of the time the dogs get along and play nicely, although an occasional skirmish does break out. Owners quickly retrieve their dogs and pull them away from the growling and barking confrontations. Play usually resumes.

What facinates me about all this is the network of friends this couple has developed as they and the other dog owners have stood in the waiting area and visited with each other. People they would have never connected with in their "normal" social network have become genuine friends that they look forward to seeing and even get together with to socialize away from the park from time to time. These folks are as diverse as their dog breeds. Republicans and democrats, Christians and non-Christians, pro-life and pro-choice, advocates of legalizing medical marijuana and those who would oppose it, all convening at predictable times at the dog park. It has become such a community that they have a bulletin board that posts news about regulars. If someone has had their pet die it gets posted on the bulletin board and many who see it send sympathy cards or otherwise make contact. My acquaintences even confessed that it being winter their outings to the park were less frequent and they were "missing" some of the people they have grown to care about.

As far as I know Jesus didn't hang out at a dog park, but there is no question that he frequented market places, fishing docks, scenic overlooks, courtyards and parties. Because of this he was criticized for being too comfortable around drunkards, gluttons and sinners. The Gospels tell us that most people he encountered were "delighted" by his presence. Could it be that it wasn't moralizing sermons they were drawn to, but rather, his listening ear, engaging smile, and his participation in the lives of the people he encountered? I can imagine people going to places where they had encountered him before in the hope he would show up again.

Whether it's a dog park, bowling league, coffee shop, break room at work, back yard bar-b-que, or foyer at church the coolest and most important stuff of life goes on where people build relationship with each other enough to care about each other no matter what their "breed of dog."