Christianity has been my life’s bridge into radical and universal love but I know countless others have crossed over by other means.
When my more conservative friends tell me only Christians can be saved, I wonder why on earth would anyone want to go to that heaven? If heaven does not have science, heretics and rock and roll it would not be heaven to me anyway. I will not adopt any aspect of any religion that does not make room for outsiders and for unpleasant truths. I have no interest in any religion that does not blossom into a love of flowers, mathematics and people of every sort.
If heaven were an eternity spent with pious self-absorbed sectarians I will gladly book my reservation in hell. I will not spend eternity in a gated community. I will not limit my singing to hymns, nor imprison my mind in a golden cage of dogma. To paraphrase Ludwig Feuerbach, I will not pluck out my eyes that I might believe better.
I believe we do not have to die to enter eternity, we only have to enter fully into this present moment to experience that which does not belong to time. I believe heaven is actually a symbol of what the world looks and feels like when we love radically and universally.
I believe angels are symbols of all those wonderful insights that make us grateful enough to sing the songs of eternity in the here and now. I do not need supernatural beings singing to me of heaven. I already have frogs and cicadas serenading me with the Hymn of the Cosmos.
I believe the prayer of love is not that we should be rescued from an actual hell. Love’s prayer is that our love be strong enough to descend into the hellish nightmare of those who feel they are the damned and to sing of a love that knows no outcasts.