{"id":273,"date":"2011-04-19T21:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T21:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead\/"},"modified":"2011-04-19T21:21:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T21:21:00","slug":"is-hell-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Hell Dead?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Just in time for Easter, TIME magazine has a cover story asking \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/nation\/article\/0,8599,2065080,00.html#ixzz1JcvKgQ15\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Is Hell Dead<\/a>?\u201d  It\u2019s inspired by and largely focuses on Evangelical pastor Rob Bell and his new book <a href=\"http:\/\/johnfranc.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/love-wins.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><i>Love Wins<\/i><\/a>.  TIME does a fair job of presenting Bell\u2019s case for Christian almost-Universalism as well as touching on traditional arguments for Hell.  <\/p>\n<p>And now the <a href=\"http:\/\/religionblog.dallasnews.com\/archives\/2011\/04\/texas-faith-is-hell-dead.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><i>Dallas Morning News<\/i>\u2019 \u201cTexas Faith\u201d feature asks this question to its interfaith panelists<\/a>, which is dominated by liberal Christians but includes others such as First Unitarian Dallas Senior Minister Daniel Kanter and EarthRhythms\u2019 <a href=\"http:\/\/johnfranc.blogspot.com\/search\/label\/Moonlady\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Amy Martin, the Moonlady<\/a>. It also includes Presbyterian scholar Cynthia Rigby, whose writing could almost make me reconsider Christianity.  Almost \u2013 having experienced the Old Gods, I can\u2019t go back to acknowledging one (or three) and pretending the rest don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve added my response to the panel in the DMN\u2019s comments section, and I repeat it here:<\/p>\n<p>As a Universalist and a believer in Justice I cannot accept the concept of infinite punishment for finite sins against arbitrary rules.  As a Pagan I do not accept the authority of the scripture and tradition on which the concept of Hell is founded.  As a Druid I expect that after death I will enjoy a time of rest and reflection before incarnating in this world once again to continue the Great Work of my soul.<\/p>\n<p>And yet\u2026<\/p>\n<p>When I see millions of people living in abject poverty, when I see wars without end, when I see people tortured and killed because of what tribe they belong to, or what god or goddess they pray to, or who they love, then I cannot be so smug as to proclaim that Hell is dead.<\/p>\n<p>Hell is alive and well \u2013 not in some underworld but right here right now.  It cannot be killed but it will die of starvation when we stop feeding it fear and hatred and greed and indifference.  <\/p>\n<p>That won\u2019t happen in this lifetime, but someday\u2026 oh, someday!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just in time for Easter, TIME magazine has a cover story asking \u201cIs Hell Dead?\u201d It\u2019s inspired by and largely focuses on Evangelical pastor Rob Bell and his new book Love Wins. TIME does a fair job of presenting Bell\u2019s case for Christian almost-Universalism as well as touching on traditional arguments for Hell. And now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Hell Dead?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just in time for Easter, TIME magazine has a cover story asking \u201cIs Hell Dead?\u201d It\u2019s inspired by and largely focuses on Evangelical pastor Rob Bell and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Hell Dead?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just in time for Easter, TIME magazine has a cover story asking \u201cIs Hell Dead?\u201d It\u2019s inspired by and largely focuses on Evangelical pastor Rob Bell and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-19T21:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html\",\"name\":\"Is Hell Dead?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-19T21:21:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-04-19T21:21:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Just in time for Easter, TIME magazine has a cover story asking \u201cIs Hell Dead?\u201d It\u2019s inspired by and largely focuses on Evangelical pastor Rob Bell and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is Hell Dead?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Hell Dead?","description":"Just in time for Easter, TIME magazine has a cover story asking \u201cIs Hell Dead?\u201d It\u2019s inspired by and largely focuses on Evangelical pastor Rob Bell and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Hell Dead?","og_description":"Just in time for Easter, TIME magazine has a cover story asking \u201cIs Hell Dead?\u201d It\u2019s inspired by and largely focuses on Evangelical pastor Rob Bell and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2011-04-19T21:21:00+00:00","author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html","name":"Is Hell Dead?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-04-19T21:21:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-04-19T21:21:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"Just in time for Easter, TIME magazine has a cover story asking \u201cIs Hell Dead?\u201d It\u2019s inspired by and largely focuses on Evangelical pastor Rob Bell and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/is-hell-dead.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Hell Dead?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}