Where Christian theology (and what it causes) scares me
July 8th, 2008
1. The belief in hell, and the fear of ending up there.
2. Fostering a detachment from this life.
2.a. and thus justifying not caring for our planet or the life on it (including one’s own, and that of other people).
3. The acceptance of the devil or of this world as a necessarily evil place
3.a. and thus justifying the existence of poverty and inequality.
Entry Filed under: Spirituality/Religion
2 Comments Add your own
1. oh you know | July 29th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Hey P, I hope all is well. We should hang out before the summer is done.
From an overly christian perspective I thought I’d respond.
1. The use of Hell as a scared tactic is unfortunate. Christians who approach their faith from a “fear-of-hell” perspective rather than a “love-of-christ” perspective are definitely scary. That being said if you truly believe it exists (as a christian) it’s one of those things your can’t really leave out of the story.
2. This one makes me sad too. The whole “don’t become too attached too this world” is terrifying when it’s taken out of context to justify the actions (or lack therof described above). However, I would argue that it’s the opposite of what Christianity is about. First God created this world for us and left us as stewards of our resources and all living things. We’re doing a bad job…we shouldn’t be. Second, God created this world for us to live in, love in and enjoy ourselves in. Instead of detaching from the life your living christians should be living it with joy and excitement.
3. The devil exists and this world was not necessarily and evil place, but we chose to allow evil into it. Original sin exposed us to evil, it is here and we have to deal with it. This existence of evil however does not give us a free pass to act evil. The state of our world explains the existence of poverty and equality, it doesn’t justify it. The reality is it shouldn’t be here and we should be fighting it with all our strength not sitting back and saying, sweet….not my problem.
2. padraigin | July 30th, 2008 at 12:20 am
hey sir,
hanging out would rock my socks.
i respect and appreciate your responses 100%, and they fall in line with how i feel the theology ought to be interpreted, and i definitely know that many people do so. it’s that perspective (which you just outlined) which i think is precisely the way God would want us to interpret Christian teachings.
…when it comes to those who don’t it looks like we pretty much see eye-to-eye :P… and it was simply the prevalence of that on which i was posting. ..
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