Today’s lesson in Bad Christianity

On one of our posts over at Unfundamentalist Christians, a reader left this comment:

God gave us free will so we would love Him by choice and not out of fear. He hates the sin but loves the sinner. However, sin cannot live in Heaven. A person who loves to sin would not be happy there and there would be no harmony. So God will have to destroy those who have not chosen to love and follow Jesus.

So the reasoning there is this: We are free to choose not to love God, but if that’s the choice we make God will destroy us.

That’s like a waiter saying, “For lunch today you have a choice: a grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of tomato soup, or a bucket of acid poured on your face. Shall I give you a moment?”

The “choice” offered by the reader’s version of the Christian God is no choice at all. “Love me or I’ll light you on fire forever” is … the world’s worst Hallmark card.

Any God who would say that—let alone do that—can be nothing but a sadistic, megalomania sociopath. At the very least it’s safe to say that such a God is immoral.

And yet Christians of a certain sort want their God to behave in this manifestly immoral way.

They desire a God who, in the most horrific way possible, physically tortures forever anyone and everyone who doesn’t believe what they themselves believe. That’s the God they want. So that’s the God they fashion from the Bible—despite everything that Jesus said and did.

And how do they manage the feat of creating a God who behaves immorally yet remains forever moral?

The construct, very nearly thin air, a system whereby God has no choice but to act immorally.

No choice! That’s the key!

To quote our commenter: “God will have to destroy those who have not chosen to love and follow Jesus.”

So today’s lesson in Bad Christianity? If you want God to act out your will, first be sure to rob him of His.

The painting is Ecce Homo, by Caravaggio