The church becomes a magnet for hypocrisy when it teaches that God lives in heaven and Satan in hell. Who wouldn’t at least pretend to love goodness if that were the ticket to eternal reward? Who wouldn’t at least pretend to hate evil if they knew that it would eventually be caught and punished with eternal torture?
A religion about salvation from hell will always be motivated by fear. A religion that focuses on heaven will always be motivated by greed. Both forms of religion lead not to a life of love, but only to an enlarged and calculating selfishness.
A religion motivated by love will be willing to pay any cost for the privilege of loving. True lovers of God would be those willing to go to hell if they knew that’s where God lived. A true lover would prefer an eternity of punishment if the alternative were loveless treasure.
I do not know about the afterlife, but in this world serving evil is much more likely to lead to mansions on streets of gold. Serving good is much more likely to put you through hell. But the true lover does not bat an eye at such choices. The true lover chooses to the punishments for loving over the rewards for cruelty every time.
Today’s post made reminded me of a story from Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim. The story comes from the early days of Rabbi Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezritch. It goes like this:
When he was young, he reportedly lived in great poverty with his wife. One legend relates that when a child was born, they had no money to pay the midwife. His wife complained and the Maggid went outside to “curse” Israel. He went outside and said: “O children of Israel, may abundant blessings come upon you!” When his wife complained a second time, he went outside again and cried: “Let all happiness come to the children of Israel — but they shall give their money to thorn bushes and stones!” The baby was too weak to cry, and the Maggid sighed rather than “cursing”. Immediately the answer came, and a voice said: “You have lost your share in the coming world.” The Maggid replied: “Well, then, the reward has been done away with. Now I can begin to serve in good earnest.”
The view of atonement held by many has contributed greatly and tragically to the sum total of violence in the world. The theology of substitutionary atonement (that a god , angry with humanity for its sin, sent Jesus to substitute for us on the cross to vindicate god’s justice and assuage god’s anger so that we might be saved…if we believe). This is a theology of redemptive violence that encourages a line of thinking and believing that justifies violence for the greater good. It legitimizes violence as sometimes serving a “good” purpose. It is also a perspective that has led to great violence in forcing this particular kind of faith on people as it asserts that belief of this sort is necessary for “salvation” e.g. “going to heaven”. Interestingly, the historic “peace” churches have not ascribed to or legitimated in sacraments this particular theology. Also, interesting to me is that MLK came to his belief in non-violent social change through Gandhi, not the Church. He did find much support for non-violence in the life and teaching of Jesus, of course; but it was another tradition that opened that up for him. In dealing with issues if a violent culture, we have to take seriously the contribution the teachings and liturgies of the “church” make to legitimating violence.
I am so fortunate to have had Keith Wright as my Pastor when I first became a Presbyterian as an adult.He was the Pastor of Faith Presbyterian when I first moved to Austin as a young adult searching for a Church home and a journey into Faith.I was raised Presbyterian,but this was my first adult experience.Among other things since Keith so called retired-he has written two books-The Hell Jesus Never Intended,and Religious Abuse.I highly recommend them.If it were not for Keith,and other members of our Church–I would probably still be looking for a true church home at 66.I like to question-a lot-and that was and is welcomed @ Faith.-I no longer believe in Hell-there is plenty of that here on Earth-but I do believe in Heaven-but-I do not think you just sit around waiting to get there-we should try to leave a little or a big lot of Heaven on Earth.
Thanks Kathleen. Keith has been an inspiration to many of us.