“Stump the Pastor” Sunday

But onto more serious things  . . . I know I’ve said lots of times, “when I get to heaven, I’m going to ask . . . ” and then go off on whatever issue is bothering me that particular day.

Well, I’m a long way from being God–although, of course, I’d like to think I’m on the verge of godliness–and am interested in hearing the questions that seriously bug people about spiritual/religious/church/salvation/Bible stuff.

Will I have answers? Of course! Now, if you are going to ask, “Will she have the RIGHT answers?” the response may be a bit different.

The thing about “RIGHT” answers is that we tend to think the right answer is the one we already agree with.  Since no one has ever accused me of being a particularly conventional thinker, the chances of my answers agreeing with lots of others is highly remote. Nonetheless, I’ve spent my life studying the Bible and reading theology, exploring eternal things and seeing how our hopes for freedom from brokenness and disease and war and just general nastiness ties in with the biblical witness.

So here are some of my questions:

• Was it really necessary for Jesus to die?

• Why are we humans so generally unkind to each other?

• What is this thing called “the kingdom of heaven?”

• Is the Bible (and therefore God) as sexist, racist and pro-slavery as it looks on a first read? If so, will heaven be sexist, racist, etc?

• Can someone who was thoroughly rotten, evil, cruel and destructive in this life be admitted to heaven and perfect bliss by simply saying “the sinner’s prayer” on his or her deathbed?

OK, all that came out in one interconnected thought.  Deep breath time.

More questions flow:

• Why is there so much poverty in the world?

• Why is it that some of the most evil people are also the richest?

• Can people who abuse little children actually go to heaven? If not, where is the line drawn?

• What about just lazy and irresponsible parents? Or men who have been “baby daddies” to multiple offspring by multiple women but who support neither the women or the children?

• What about drug dealers who systematically take over and corrupt entire neighborhoods?  Do they get in if they are believers in Jesus?

And what does it mean to “believe in Jesus?” What if the Jesus I believe in doesn’t match the Jesus you believe in?

Then, of course, there are the almost universal questions like,

• Do unbaptized/unbelieving children go to hell if they die before the “age of accountability?” as many Christian groups teach.

• What is the “age of accountability” for those born with severely damaged brains and reasoning abilities or with differently wired brains that cannot grasp metaphor and other languages that seek to explore the spiritual and unseen world?

And since we’ve been examining the nature of the battle between good and evil for the last few weeks, there is this question, “Why doesn’t God just wipe out all the evil in the world?  Why does it have such free reign?”

And I haven’t even begun on “If evolution is true, is there a literal Adam and Eve?”

Send me yours!  The youth of the church have already offered a list and it would be great fun to create a compilation of the “most wanted to ask” questions. And a huge challenge to answer them–the kind of challenge that energizes me to the core of my soul.

Here are the questions the youth have already sent:

• Why is it so hard to help others pull out of depression?
• Why do we do mission work?
• How can we forgive others?
• Were angels people who died or were angels always angels?
• Why do some people go to church and act like a Christian and go home and act completely different?
• What will heaven be like?
• Is there such a thing as anger? (not sure here what the questioner needs here. Is this about the possibility of righteous anger?)
• Did Judas go to hell?
• Can you choose rebirth?
• How can the Holy Spirit be one with the Trinity and yet be individual?

Please add yours!

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