Part 4. The Ecumenical Curse of Hell!
Christianity in a Crisis
I was raised in a Presbyterian church and that tends to implant Christian thinking into one’s bloodstream so I have always kept an eye on the cross, albeit from a distance. Since I moved to Ventura County in 1987, I occasionally tune my ears to KDAR, the local Christian radio station that blasts out at 1,500 watts. Hank Hanegraaff, otherwise known by the rather bodacious title: “The Bible Answer Man” is one of the best spin artists I have heard in a long time when it comes to jumping over difficult theological questions. His success is highly dependent on a good call screener and his finely honed ability to respond to questions with the rhetoric of a well-seasoned politician. God’s PR man Hank mastered the art of speaking in a very convincing tone to obfuscate his evasive answers.
There is one thing Mr. Hanegraaff got right however, the title of his book, Christianity in a Crisis. According to “Religious News Service” the piety of Americans reached a peak in the late 1950’s probably as a response to God for the fact that we won World War II. Since then however, the decline in church attendance has consistently fallen “…the difference between the 1960s and 1980s is a decline of about 1.5 standard deviations, but the difference between the late 1990s and 2012 is nearly three standard deviations.” (Three standard deviations account for 99.7 percent of the sample population being studied, assuming a normal bell shaped distribution. The simple way to understand this decline is to envision a 45-degree downward slope on the graph since 1958.)
The fear, shame based faith perpetuated by the Catholic church has driven people away and spawned the blowback of websites like OnceCatholic.org. The Internet is filled with commentaries and videos denouncing the church and despising religion, yet people continue to cling to the basic teachings of Lord Christ. Much of this mood culminates in a four-minute rap song entitled Why I hate Religion but Love Jesus by Jefferson Bethke. The lyrics of this well thought out video struck a nerve and reflects the contempt for religion that has been expressed by many.
John Shelby “Jack” Spong is a highly respected bishop now retired from the Episcopal Church. He authored the book: Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism and has spent his entire ministerial career campaigning to save Christianity from absurd teachings and its own dissociative disorder before it completely self-destructs. Bishop Spong correctly asserts: “The heart cannot worship what the mind rejects.” This is particularly alarming when studies indicate that only 50% of the population with a High School education believe the Bible to be the actual word of God and that number drops to half for those who have attended college. Only 15% of individuals with a college degree accept the Bible as the literal word of God.
Mother Teresa is one of the most visible Christian Icons in modern times but shortly after she departed our association it was discovered that that she was deeply tormented about her faith and suffered periods of great doubt about the very existence of God. “Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear,” she wrote to the Rev. Michael van der Peet in September 1979. If this is the conclusion that one of the biggest advocates for Christianity after dedicating her entire life doing “God’s Work,” how reassuring is this to the working class hero who rarely gets to church and whose Bible is just a dust collector?
From an academic philosophical point of view, I have always enjoyed all varieties of religion and can find something to appreciate with each of them. However, due to the many upheavals Christianity has gone through, and the awkward exchange I had with the so called Inter-Denominational Men’s Group, I realized my list for regular spiritual field trips to the local churches grew to almost nothing. I knew I had to change that if I was going to learn more about this new ambassador for Jesus, Mr. Paul Bergmann.
Easter Sunrise Service
Meanwhile for 27 years I commuted from Ojai to the Port Hueneme Navy base where I was employed as a Database Engineer. Several years ago, during the first few weeks of April, I began to notice banners along route 33 advertising “Easter Sunrise Service at Lake Casitas” I thought, “I bet that would be quite refreshing. I could get to the lake very early, chant a few sessions of the Hare Krishna mantras on my prayer beads, and join the ceremony honoring the resurrection of Lord Christ. When that day came that’s exactly what I did.
When I got to the lake it was still dark but there was an 8ft cross, lit with white Christmas lights and a few obviously cold musicians doing the best they could to set the mood with music and song. I got some hot chocolate that was freely offered to guests, and found a place to sit. A small podium had been set up and before too long I was unexpectedly surprised to discover that the same Pastor Paul Bergmann that spoke to the audience at the Living Peace festival was going to give the sermon.
It was soon quite clear that by the content of his sermon, I was not in the presence of a dogmatic Christian evangelist. Pastor Paul was stretching the boundaries of acceptable Christian doctrine right to the very edge of what would be considered theologically acceptable and he even poked his toe over that line on several occasions. No devotee of Krishna would ever dare say anything that was not supported by the Vedas, but there is hardly any reason why a Brahmin would have to do so. The Vedas consist of millions of verses that comprehensively cover every subject relevant to time, karma, matter, reincarnation, the nature of God and everything one needs to know about both the physical and spiritual worlds.
“I shall now declare unto you in full this knowledge, both phenomenal and numinous. This being known, nothing further shall remain for you to know.” – Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Chapter 7. Knowledge of the Absolute, Text 2.
I have returned to the Easter Sunrise service every year, and not only enjoyed Pastor Paul’s erudite sermons, but truly enjoyed the pancakes and fruit the congregation provides for a nominal donation as well. I’ve even brought other friends and devotees with me because it is always such a refreshing experience. Pastor Paul’s deep understanding of Jewish history and how the Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek languages influenced Biblical interpretation insure that his sermons are always intellectually stimulating. Set with the backdrop of what’s left of Lake Casitas, the flora, fauna, and rising sun make for a magical meditation on Krishna’s virat-purusa, (Universal form of God) as well.
I eventually learned that somewhere over the last decade, the Ojai Community Church had undergone a major internal doctrinal metamorphous. Back to the time when I was exiled from the Men’s Group, the church had developed the distinguished reputation for having the largest congregation in the Ojai Valley. Apparently when Pastor Paul joined the ministerial staff, he did not disrupt the traditional hell, fire and brimstone evangelical mood that prevailed and all was copasetic. As time progressed, the Biblical doctrine kept colliding with serious philosophical black holes that catapulted the creditability of Christianity into oblivion. Supersoul, which means God within the heart of every atom, drove Pastor Paul to take a stand for what he could no longer stand. The pure dogmatic rigidity reflected in the blind faith of excessively sentimental Christians who had little or no philosophical foundation to support their beliefs was causing chaos and needed to be addressed.
For example, any child who visited the Grand Canyon for a family vacation can understand that the 6000 foot deep stone gorge has been there long before the Talmud stories were written about the tribes of Abraham – which is when the Bible tells us the world began. Another conundrum for Christianity is the vague concept that one must very consciously and intentionally “Ask Jesus into your heart to be saved,” even though there are no Biblical references mandating one does this. It’s also worth noting here that the definition of being “Saved” is in itself a paradox open to much personal interpretation and confusion. If the person I can’t stand is also saved does that mean I have to still put up with him in Heaven? If this is the “only” way one gets saved, what then is the fate of a small child who passes away before he knows how to read the back of a cereal box?
The Attack of the Mega Atheists & A Loving God
There are so many conundrums surrounding Christianity that it is now being directly attacked by an army of very arrogant published atheists led by Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (Letter to a Christian Nation) and Christopher Hedges (God Is NOT Great!) Of all the unusual things that traditional Christianity must address is the concept of Hell. These atheists are correctly questioning: “Just how loving is it for God to condemn someone to eternal damnation in a lake of fire?” p>
” And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire”. – Revelation 20:13-15
No matter how the Pope, the fast talking Bible answer man, or the local clergy attempt to rationalize this phenomenon, common sense prevails that a Loving God would not condemn any of his children to eternal damnation. Moderately competent individuals understand that a compassionate God would never levy such a punishment on one of his children simply because they made a childlike, foolish decision! People reason that even a mundane parent has the natural tendency to forgive their children endlessly, sometime to the extent that doing so is inappropriate. (We often see this with parents who plea for the court’s mercy when their progeny has been convicted for rape or murder).
The Christian concept of an eternal Hell is becoming an embarrassment for a faith that extends all across the Western world. Ministers have to stretch the meaning of words and create new interpretations to find more acceptable ways of explaining what Hell is, how one ends up there and most particularly, why it isn’t eternal! That’s because God sounds like a very harsh task master if He sends His children to scorching hell for eternity simply because of something as trivial as having a disagreement with their neighbor! p>
“…but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” – Matthew 10:22
New & Improved Christianity!
Christianity has been debated, diluted, bent, distorted, redefined, fractured and re-pitched in a plethora of ways for the last 2000 years. Islam is experiencing the same phenomena as religious ideas get amalgamated. Some faiths hemorrhage as different beliefs encroach across the borders of the Western world. The new Pope Francis is suggesting significant changes into Catholicism with hope that doing so will luring more members back into the pews. The 77-year-old pontiff has sought to awaken a spirit of joy and compassion in the church. He has scolded Catholic “sourpusses” who hunt down rule-breakers and their “tomb psychology” that “slowly transforms Christians into mummies in a museum.” p>
“In her ongoing discernment, the Church can also come to see that certain customs not directly connected to the heart of the Gospel, even some which have deep historical roots, are no longer properly understood and appreciated.” – Pope Francis
Buddhists completely side step hell and the New-Age followers believe if they don’t give it any “energy” then it won’t exist. The Fifth Canto of the Bhagavat Purana gives quite an elaborate explanation of the numerous Hellish planets and the horrendous things going on there. However the Vedas don’t have the problem “Eternal Hell” preaching Christians face because they understand Hell is part of the non-permanent material world. That means nobody goes there indefinitely. The Vedic concept of Hell is that it is just a more severe reminder to the conditioned soul that none of us belong here. Once you have served your time, you get out of your Hell-cell and are given another chance to restore your lost relationship with God.
As the problem of Hell continues to percolate up from an ever-increasing number of concerned Christians, there are a few brave Disciples of Christ who are stepping forward and boldly declaring from the Sunday Pulpit that they will no longer preach the traditional concept of Hell, Fire & Brimstone. These courageous souls are following their own conscience. (God within their heart referred to as Supersoul.) But because they are committed to teaching love for God, instead the eternal Lake of Fire, which is fear of God, they often pay a very dear price.
Around 2005 Bishop Carlton D’Metrius Pearson, was the pastor of one of the largest churches in Tulsa, Oklahoma, however when he began speaking about universal reconciliation as an alternative to an eternal Hell, his congregation abandoned him and he was eventually removed from the church and declared a heretic. Universal reconciliation is the doctrine that all sinful and alienated human souls—because of divine love and mercy—will ultimately be reconciled to God. What is interesting about this new way of speaking about Hell is that it presents a process that is almost identical to the Vedic concept of Reincarnation established tens-of-thousands of years ago!
One would think that contemporary church leaders would learn from the disgrace that was brought down on Christianity when they did virtually the same thing to Copernicus and Galileo during the renaissance! Those pioneers pointed out that it was time to abandon the concept that the earth is the center of the Universe because it simply didn’t concur with what they saw through their telescopes. Now many ministers are finding it more and more difficult to defend the Hell-Fire-Brimstone concept of God. More of them are refusing to keep up the dogmatic practice in that regard. Their very own congregations often ostracize those who express this conviction. One of the most vocal people attempting to lead Christianity away from these types of dogmatic problems is the former head pastor of Michigan’s Mars Hill Bible Church, Mr. Rob Bell. He is leading the charge to try and restore a logical, respectable, and reasonable approach to the core teachings of Lord Christ.
Rob Bell A Revolutionary with a Polished Cross
Rob Bell gathered momentum in the field of religious ideas because of his common sense interpretation of the Bible. By January 2007 the magazine TheChurchReport.com, declared Rob Bell as No. 10 in its list of “The 50 Most Influential Christians in America.” By 2011 Time Magazine named Bell on its list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
When Pastor Bell published the book Love Wins in 2010 it was criticized extensively, led by the Christian heavyweight scholar Albert Mohler who called it “Theologically Disastrous.” The public voted with their dollars, however, and it became a best seller. His success is reflected in his attitude toward poorly thought out Christian sentiments, which he characterizes as: “…a very narrow, politically intertwined, culturally ghettoized Evangelical subculture.”
Pastor Bell believes that the most important contribution one can make for the betterment of humankind is to: “…actually shape people into more loving, compassionate people.” He holds the Evangelicals responsible for “having supported policies and ways of viewing the world that are actually destructive.” Pastor Bell’s mission is to rebrand Christianity away from the traditional exclusive attitude it is known for, to one that is more embracing of all faiths. In his writings, Bell says “I affirm the truth anywhere in any religious system, in any worldview. If it’s true, it belongs to God.” He then adds: “This is not just the same old message with new methods. We’re rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life.”
(To be continued…)
Mayesvara dasa (ACBSP)
AKA: William Roberts MBA/MIS, CCP
Director: American Vedic Association
Proprietor: Jagannatha Enterprises
687 West Villanova Road
Ojai, California 93023
(805) 640-0405 mdjagdasa @ gmail.com