Category: Beating Back the St00pid

From John Pavlovitz:

I'm going to hell.

At least this is what American Evangelicals often like to tell me.

Apparently though, I'm not alone.

According to them I'm in very good company, as a vast portion of the planet will be eventually be joining me in the corporate weeping and the gnashing of our collective teeth—along with the billions of others, whose incessant torment is already currently in progress.

And sure, on some days the thought of such eternal damnation does seems like more than a bit of a bummer, and I find myself struggling not to let it ruin beautiful afternoons at the park, quiet moments with my kids, and joyous dinners with friends.

The idea of not going to Heaven certainly tends to cast a pall over things at times: movies, vacations, kickboxing classes.

However, the more I begin to visualize the actual Heaven these folks are supposedly excluding me from, the less and less worrisome the prospect becomes:

Apparently Heaven is going to be strictly America First.

Only English will be spoken in Heaven. Everyone else will just have to adjust.

It's also going to be very, very, very white; with caucasian dudes (like God and Jesus) running the show and making the rules. The ladies will be taking care of the meals and the kids and whatnot.

There will of course, be no Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Wiccans, Unitarians, Agnostics, Atheists, backsliders, heretics, doubters, sinners, or Democrats there.

(There may be a few Mainline Protestants, if they manage to slip through security.)

In American Evangelical Heaven, there will be no gays or lesbians; no transgender people, no bisexual folks, no non-binary or gender fluid individuals—or anyone aiding and abetting them by actually respecting and loving them here on earth.

Also from what I'm able to gather by the brimstone prognosticators here who are certain of their inclusion, American Evangelical heaven will be filled with people who:

• deny others healthcare
• withhold charity from the poor
• politically support predators
• willfully destroy the environment
• fiercely guard their borders
• contest the value of black lives
• fear immigrants, refugees, and people with brown skin

Of course, these will not be issues in Heaven, since there will be no hunger or thirst, no suffering or pain, no sadness or grief. In other words—there will be no one there to bother them with any actual need requiring their compassion, like there were here on earth.

In American Evangelical Heaven, there will be no beggars or poor to be a drain on society Everyone there will have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps. (Well, actually they'll have all received unmerited mercy and grace they could never deserve—but why quibble over technicalities.)

I've been a Christian for most of my life, and I've seen hell used as a way of modifying behavior and controlling people by preying upon their greatest fears. I've seen it wielded like a weapon in the hands of people who don't seem all that loving or merciful (or fun to be around.)

I've seen Heaven turned into a gated community of straight white, politically partisan American people—where diversity really won't be represented and where difference will be turned away at the door.

It's evolved into a fortified bunker of nationalism, homophobia, misogyny, and bigotry.

The more the image of these people's Heaven becomes, the less and less trepidation I have of my soul's resting place somewhere outside of it.

Receiving their damnation actually begins to feel like dodging a bullet.

I may be condemned to suffer all manner of unimaginable horrors, but I won't have to suffer their hateful, exclusionary, angry religion, or to live surrounded by people who seem so joyful at the thought of other's damnation and so callous toward such a vast swath of humanity supposedly made in the image of God.

If Heaven is filled with only American Evangelicals—I'll pass.

Hell seems like a much more beautiful place.

Shorter version? "Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company." ~ Mark Twain

Dear White Evangelicals,

I need to tell you something: People have had it with you.

They're done.

They want nothing to do with you any longer, and here's why:

They see your hypocrisy, your inconsistency, your incredibly selective mercy, and your thinly veiled supremacy.

For eight years they watched you relentlessly demonize a black President; a man faithfully married for 26 years; a doting father and husband without a hint of moral scandal or the slightest whiff of infidelity.

They watched you deny his personal faith convictions, argue his birthplace, and assail his character—all without cause or evidence. They saw you brandish Scriptures to malign him and use the laziest of racial stereotypes in criticizing him.

And through it all, White Evangelicals—you never once suggested that God placed him where he was,
you never publicly offered prayers for him and his family,
you never welcomed him to your Christian Universities,
you never gave him the benefit of the doubt in any instance,
you never spoke of offering him forgiveness or mercy,
your evangelists never publicly thanked God for his leadership,
your pastors never took to the pulpit to offer solidarity with him,
you never made any effort to affirm his humanity or show the love of Jesus to him in any quantifiable measure.

You violently opposed him at every single turn—without offering a single ounce of the grace you claim as the heart of your faith tradition. You jettisoned Jesus as you dispensed damnation on him.

And yet today, you openly give a "mulligan" to a white Republican man so riddled with depravity, so littered with extramarital affairs, so unapologetically vile, with such a vast resume of moral filth—that the mind boggles.

And the change in you is unmistakable. It has been an astonishing conversion to behold: a being born again.

With him, you suddenly find religion.
With him, you're now willing to offer full absolution.
With him, all is forgiven without repentance or admission.
With him you're suddenly able to see some invisible, deeply buried heart.
With him, sin has become unimportant, compassion no longer a requirement.
With him, you see only Providence.

And White Evangelicals, all those people who have had it with you—they see it all clearly.

They recognize the toxic source of your inconsistency.

They see that pigmentation and party are your sole deities.
They see that you aren't interested in perpetuating the love of God or emulating the heart of Jesus.
They see that you aren't burdened to love the least, or to be agents of compassion, or to care for your Muslim, gay, African, female, or poor neighbors as yourself.
They see that all you're really interested in doing, is making a God in your own ivory image and demanding that the world bow down to it.
They recognize this all about white, Republican Jesus—not dark-skinned Jesus of Nazareth.

And I know you don't realize it, but you're digging your own grave in these days; the grave of your very faith tradition.

Your willingness to align yourself with cruelty is a costly marriage. Yes, you've gained a Supreme Court seat, a few months with the Presidency as a mouthpiece, and the cheap high of temporary power—but you've lost a whole lot more.

You've lost an audience with millions of wise, decent, good-hearted, faithful people with eyes to see this ugliness.
You've lost any moral high ground or spiritual authority with a generation.
You've lost any semblance of Christlikeness.
You've lost the plot.
And most of all you've lost your soul.

I know it's likely you'll dismiss these words. The fact that you've even made your bed with such malevolence, shows how far gone you are and how insulated you are from the reality in front of you.

But I had to at least try to reach you. It's what Jesus would do.

Maybe you need to read what he said again—if he still matters to you.

[Source]

I wonder who's is smaller…