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{"id":927,"date":"2012-02-23T11:00:54","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T15:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freethoughtblogs.com\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=927"},"modified":"2012-08-10T00:45:13","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T04:45:13","slug":"hell-the-most-problematic-christian-doctrine-of-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/hell-the-most-problematic-christian-doctrine-of-all.html","title":{"rendered":"Hell: The most problematic Christian doctrine of all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I am a mother. I look at my beautiful young daughter, so full of life and joy and excitement and curiosity, and I feel my love for her bubbling up in my heart. If I believed that there were any possibility that this sweet little thing could end up tortured in a lake of fire for eternity, I would leave no stone unturned in\u00a0desperately\u00a0working to keep her from this fate.<\/p>\n

In my quest to keep my daughter from unimaginable pain, I would probably be highly susceptible to religious leaders offering various methods for raising good Christian children, and easily taken in by their promises to keep my daughter\u2019s soul from destruction. I would do anything I had to do, buy any book, try any method, risk any hurt. What parent wouldn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

Fundamentalist preacher and author Michael Pearl promises parents that if they discipline their children just so, including an emphasis on absolute obedience and the use of hitting to back it up, they will not stray from God\u2019s path, and if he warns that if children are allowed to grow up without such discipline, they will be set on the path to hell. Is it any wonder that so many parents follow Pearl\u2019s highly<\/a> problematic<\/a> parenting<\/a> methods<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Leading Christian patriarchy organization\u00a0 Vision Forum<\/a> promises that if you raise your children according to their teachings, homeschooling in order to \u201cshelter\u201d from \u201cevil influences\u201d and \u201cteach God\u2019s truth\u201d and emphasizing the hierarchical teachings of Christian patriarchy, your child will not stray<\/a> from Christ\u2019s side like all those\u00a0willful\u00a0pagan children in the public schools. Is it any surprise Vision Forum has such a draw<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Bill Gothard\u2019s Institute for Basic Life Principles<\/a>\u00a0also promises a perfect godly family, with highly problematic consequences. Mercy Ministries<\/a> and Hephzibah House<\/a>\u00a0promise to restore your rebellious teenage daughter\u2019s faith, though both have been linked to abuse. Exodus International<\/a> promises to \u201ccure\u201d your gay son or daughter, though actual science is nowhere on their side. And on and on and on it goes.<\/p>\n

If I believed there was any chance my small daughter could go to hell, I would turn to any method I could to keep her from this unimaginably horrible fate.<\/p>\n

Attend church three times a week? Check.\u00a0Homeschool using only religious textbooks? Check.\u00a0Control her every interaction with others to keep her away from \u201cbad influences\u201d? Check.\u00a0Follow strict child training methods that involve enforced obedience and hitting her if she so much as has a bad attitude? Check.\u00a0Employ emotional manipulation or even threaten to cut her off if she grows up to make wrong choices, hoping that tough love will bring her back? Check.<\/p>\n

Simply put, I would do anything<\/em> I had to to keep my daughter from eternal torture. I suspect any parent would, really.<\/p>\n

And then, if my daughter ceased to follow Jesus and I believed that she was on her way to hell, my heart would break. How could I have joy in life thinking of my daughter suffering eternal torture? How could I be happy knowing that pain without end lay in her path?<\/p>\n

And how could I not lay some of the blame for her fate on myself? I would ask myself where I went wrong. Should I have sent her to the\u00a0Worldview Academy<\/a>, which promises to make your child immune to the wiles of liberal professors?\u00a0Should I have sent her to Summit<\/a>, the McCarthyist worldview conference that promises to give young people a conservative Christian worldview, for several summers instead of only one? Or maybe I should have sent her to an even more conservative college, or taken her to the Creation Museum<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Guilt and blame would ensue. How could I not keep my own daughter from eternal torture?<\/p>\n

I understand why my parents raised me as they did and then reacted as they did when I questioned their beliefs.\u00a0And I think now you understand why I really, really, really hate the doctrine of hell.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"