For most Christian evangelicals – and probably all fundamentalists, such as Southern Baptists – if a sinner hasn't been born again (accepted Jesus as "personal savior"), he or she will spend an eternity roasting in hell. Well done. No A1 sauce.
That's what the Christian Broadcast Network show biz 700 Club Gospel group thinks. Right-wing GOP Rebiblican politics. Televangelist guilt-and-give, sin-and-salvation, shell-game, money-in-the-bank for Rev. Preach-One-Thing, Do-Another. (Just don't get caught like Teddy Haggarty.)
It's a bleak outlook for Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Shintoists, Hindus, Scientologists, Unitarians, Mormons, Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Metropolitan Community Churches, and, yes, "unsaved" Roman Catholics; but the Bible, God's infallible, error-free Word – especially the Scofield version – does not lie. Eternity. Forever! And ever! Etc. Etc . . . .
So there, Non-Believing, Gay Belles of St. Mary. Be warned. Go down on your knees for God's salvation, not for untoward, Sodom & Gomorrah, Far East of Eden, sins of backroom, bare-naked, lift-your-fig-leaf, kiss the serpent in the garden, OT abomination.
Occasionally, there are down-to-the-wire exceptions. Last minute repentees who weep, wail, lament over a sinful, wicked life spent in evil deeds, darksome thoughts. Through the precious shed blood of the Lamb, "unmerited favor," and God's sometimes curious, wonder-working Grace, they are saved. Amen! Not a moment too soon.
One such success story is Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer of 13 young men, several of whom he ritually cannibalized. Yea, verily! He got "saved!" Thanks to the love, the kindness, the weekly persistence, the soul-saving dedication of a fundygelical minister who visited woeful, wayward, naughty-boy Jeffrey in prison.
(Oh, the glory, glory of it all! Jeff finds Saintly Peter in heaven. His unsaved, under-age, victims roasting, you-know-where. Who says life – after death – is fair?)
Eternal damnation's a pernicious doctrine; one that Rob Bell, Michigan pastor of the 10,000 mega-member Grand Rapids Mars Hill Bible Church, says – according to last week's New York Times book reviewer commentary – is "misguided and toxic."
Bell's book, "Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Lived," (mind-bogglingly titled, Harper One published) is out this week. Its publication causes tidal waves of controversy. Cries of heresy from outraged fundygelicals. (250,000 Twitter hits in a 48-hour period). No hell? Oh, God, no way!.
Bell -"a Christian celebrity and something of a hipster" – has a large youth following, those hip among the Christian rock-music set. His shocking thesis upsetting "true believers" is that a loving God would never, never condemn all non-born-again people "to spend eternity in torment and punishment in hell, with no chance for anything better." (No, not even Zug Island. For Michiganders, of course.)
One might think this obvious to persons of sane, rational, compassionate understanding. It's not. Born again believers like George W., Sarah Palin, Pat "Diamond Mine" Robertson, Freddy Phelps – now Newt Gingrich – are none of the above, all of the below (Lake of Fire & Brimstone for everybody else.)
As for Freddy, you've got to give him and militant Elm Streeters credit. They're out in the open about the fact God hates. Their God will damn anyone – above all, fags – who does not believe in an eye for an eye, but seeing the righteousness of picketing soldier funerals.
Oddly enough, ask any evangelical, any Southern Baptist – be he or she follower, minister, or missionary – What's your motivation for saving souls from Hell? and the answer will be: "Because we love the sinner, we just hate the sin. We want to share God's free gift of salvation. Reject it. Suffer the consequences. (Don't say we didn't warn you. But don't blame God.)"
Who knows? Maybe Pastor Rob Bell from his 10,000 mega-church, Grand Rapids pulpit will change things. There's safety in numbers. Count on God to be on the winning side. (For a change.)
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