{"id":14791,"date":"2011-05-17T18:37:07","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T01:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnshore\/?p=14791"},"modified":"2011-05-17T18:37:07","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T01:37:07","slug":"no-heaven-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnshore\/2011\/05\/no-heaven-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"“No Heaven For You!”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you love God, God will reward you for that love by blessing you with an eternity filled with joyous bliss.<\/p>\n

If you do not pledge to God your loyalty and fealty, God will punish you by cursing you with an eternity filled with horrendous physical torture.<\/p>\n

Die a Christian? Up you go to heaven!<\/p>\n

Die a non-Christian? Try to make sure that before it closes shut someone tosses a bag of marshmallows into your coffin. (And then\u2014what with where you\u2019re<\/em> going\u2014prepare to never find a stick.)<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t think it will matter why<\/em> you died a non-Christian, either. Because it won\u2019t. Maybe you were born and raised a Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist<\/a>, Native American, Bahaist. Maybe you were raised by dingoes in the aboriginal wilds. Maybe you decided there is no God, and became an atheist. Maybe you decided you just couldn\u2019t decide, and became an agnostic. Maybe you just didn\u2019t care<\/em> all that much, and figured you\u2019d know soon enough anyway so why pick a lane you don\u2019t have to?<\/p>\n

Yeah, none of that will matter. All that matters is that if you die anything but a Christian, then no heaven for you!<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what being a Christian boils down to: Be<\/em> one\u2014or else!<\/p>\n

And that, friends and fellow earthlings, is the Christianity in which so many believe.<\/p>\n

And that <\/em>is the Christianity that\u2019s responsible for so many people today leaving church\u2014and for so many others refusing to ever go near a church in the first place.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the Christianity that has just got to go.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLove me, because I love you. And if you don\u2019t<\/em> love me, I\u2019ll torture you forever.\u201d What would that be, from the Stalker<\/em> line of Hallmark cards? What kind of sickness is that? And what kind of unhealthy relationship must it produce?<\/p>\n

Who wants to be in a relationship because they\u2019re terrified not<\/em> to be in that relationship?<\/p>\n

The model of Christianity upon which that kind of relationship is predicated needs to go the way of the dodo bird, slavery, and blood-letting. God is<\/em> still talking\u2014and he\u2019s telling an awful lot of us to grow up already, and stop treating him like some big mean Daddy in the sky who\u2019ll whip us all real hard forever if we\u2019re not good little boys and girls. That\u2019s not who God is. That\u2019s not how God operates. Those aren\u2019t God\u2019s values.<\/p>\n

That kind of Christianity belongs to a mentality that feeds on the fears and resentments of men, not the love and acceptance of God.<\/p>\n

That kind of Christianity is mad about naming who exactly is and isn\u2019t with it, and why.<\/p>\n

That kind of Christianity needs enemies to give it focus and purpose\u2014and the more enemies it has, the happier it is.<\/p>\n

That kind of Christianity swaggers, preens, points, scowls, judges, and with its confident, braying bravado opportunistically and purposefully strikes fear into the hearts of perfectly decent people who want nothing more than to know that, in some real and lasting way, their human frailties are forgiven.<\/p>\n

That kind of Christianity revels in pointing an accusatory finger with what it dares declare the hand of God.<\/p>\n

Do you know that in the Bible Jesus never says a word<\/em> about the ultimate fate of anyone who dies a non-Christian? Not once does it come up. We have no idea who does and doesn\u2019t get into heaven. None.<\/p>\n

Apparently Jesus didn\u2019t think that was anything we should be worried about. Apparently he didn\u2019t think that what happens to anyone in the afterlife is any of our business.<\/p>\n

He sure was clear about how we should live in this<\/em> life, though, wasn\u2019t he? No waffling there,<\/em> was there?<\/p>\n

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, \u201cOf all the commandments, which is the most important?\u201d \u201cThe most important one,\u201d answered Jesus, \u201cis this: \u2018Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.\u2019 The second is this: \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 There is no commandment greater than these.\u201d<\/em> (Mark 12:28-31)<\/p>\n

There. That\u2019s<\/em> our mission.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s who God is.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s who God wants us to be.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re supposed to love God, and then\u2014filled with God\u2019s returned love for us\u2014love our neighbors.<\/p>\n

Heaven help the person who endeavors to turn that clear directive into a prescription for who does and doesn\u2019t get sentenced to hell.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Along these lines I also once made this:<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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