Hell and Damnation

According to my mother, my grandmother whom I called Nana, was obsessed with whether or not she would go to Heaven or Hell as her life came closer to its end. I’ll bet some of you had a Nana. Someone who cared for you when you were sick, ate the burnt pork chop while she served you the one that was perfectly cooked, went to church every Sunday, treated the people around her kindly. She wasn’t perfect. I’m sure she had her flaws. I’m sure I don’t know what they were. But at the end of her life, she was consumed by fear that she wasn’t good enough.

Not good enough for Heaven… so, bad enough for Hell.

“No truly accomplished New Testament scholar, for instance, believes that later Christianity’s opulent mythology of God’s eternal torture chamber is clearly present in the scriptural texts. It’s entirely absent from St. Paul’s writings; the only eschatological fire he ever mentions brings salvation to those whom it tries (1 Corinthians 3:15). Neither is it found in the other New Testament epistles, or in any extant documents (like the Didache) from the earliest post-apostolic period. There are a few terrible, surreal, allegorical images of judgment in the Book of Revelation, but nothing that, properly read, yields a clear doctrine of eternal torment. Even the frightening language used by Jesus in the Gospels, when read in the original Greek, fails to deliver the infernal dogmas we casually assume to be there.”
-        Why Do People Believe in Hell? - David Bentley Hart, New York Times, 1/10/2020

In other words, Hell doesn’t exist, at least not the graphic image that is omnipresent in our culture. THAT is not present in the scriptures. There are allegorical references that have been translated as Hell like the passage in Matthew that refers to “the One who can destroy body and soul in Gehenna.” (Mt. 10:28) And even these allegorical references are few and far between. For the graphic images of Hell that most of us think of when we hear about Hell, you have to look to an epic poem that most of us have not read but permeates our culture, Dante’s Inferno written in the 14^th century.  

On the other hand, references to God’s love and grace are pervasive throughout the Gospels and Letters. Romans 5:18 says, “Therefore, just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.” And 1 Corinthians 15:22, “for as all die in Adam, ALL will be made alive in Christ.” (Emphasis mine.)

And what about Matthew 3:17? Immediately after Jesus is baptized, “…a voice from Heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’” This is not a conditional blessing at the point of Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem or at his martyrdom. As my pastor noted in her sermon this morning, Jesus hasn’t done anything yet. God says, “This is my son with whom I am well pleased” but the baptism is where Jesus’ ministry begins. Mark’s gospel also begins with Jesus’ baptism where, once again, God says that this is God’s son who, even though he hasn’t done anything yet, is beloved. Only in Luke’s gospel is there a brief reference to Jesus teaching in the temple when he is 12 which precedes his baptism and God’s pronouncement.

There is SO much evidence of God’s grace and love that it really is confounding that someone as good as Nana could worry that she was destined for Dante’s Inferno. Where does this fear come from?

This is part of the question that Professor Hart was addressing in his New York Times’ essay. And while I agree with his answer, I have my own particular view that I would like to share. And while we explore this, let us allow for the possibility that you may not believe in a literal Hell but your belief in Hell is not being worthy of Love or Forgiveness or Acceptance or Affirmation.

To put it simply, Hart’s thesis is that winners rely on losers for their sense of accomplishment. That may seem cold and heartless but our culture bears his thesis out. How many times have I heard someone lament the presence of “participation trophies” as if telling a five year old that their efforts are worthy of acknowledgement is a bad thing? We are a culture that thrives on winners to the extent that we seem to have a deep seated need to make sure the five year old “loser” knows their place.

We seek to find our place among the “winners” and safeguard ourselves from being one of “them,” the “losers.” We don’t just passively allow for an “us vs. them” scenario, we actively seek out proof that we are not “them.” We seem to have a simultaneous capacity for compassion and judgment. In my pastor’s sermon this morning, she told a story of a woman who was volunteering at a homeless shelter but was late getting there so that the normal entrances weren’t available to her. As she worked her way through to the front of the line of homeless people who were waiting to be served, she felt relief when one of her fellow volunteers acknowledged her by name as she opened the door to let her in. At once, she also felt shame as she acknowledged that part of her relief was being recognized as “not one of them” whom she was there to serve. Here is a person with a good heart, volunteering to serve, and yet so easily able to slip into judgment of her fellow human beings that created separation between her (“us”) and “them.”

To our own internal torment and detriment, we hold on to notions of Hell because we derive satisfaction, or relief, from knowing that someone else is “beneath” us.  Theologically, this shows up in the perversity of the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” movement. In this theology, God’s grace is known to us in this life by our prosperity. If you are financially successful, this is evidence that you are uniquely blessed by God compared to all those “losers” out there that aren’t succeeding. This movement seems to have taken over for the old theologies of the chosen few that have evolved from their more rigid 19^th century configurations.

But, in my mind, perhaps the clearest evidence of our deep seated need for an identified “them” that fosters our belief in Hell is reality television shows. Not the competitions for the best cupcake, although even some of those have an edge to them which delights in ridiculing the “loser.” More evidence that even a cupcake competition can feed the belief in Hell that is fueled by a desire to know someone is lesser than us. But the really insidious ones are the reality talk shows, the Jerry Springer type shows where people are invited to come on stage and display all of their faults, dysfunctions, and frailties in front of a live audience who are sometimes encouraged to boo and jeer them. THERE is an example where you can sit back in your couch and say, “Woo, my life may be a mess but at least I’m not THEM!”

That is the root of our belief in Hell. We may not be sure we aren’t going there ourselves but knowing that someone is makes us feel better about ourselves. But here’s the problem. We often believe in Hell more than we believe that we don’t deserve to be there.

Apparently, Nana did. And I know I do. Especially when I redefine Hell as being unworthy of Love or Forgiveness. I know that I have hurt people. I may not have intended it. I can acknowledge that “I was young,” “I was acting out of anxiousness or fear.” But that doesn’t change the fact that I know that I caused someone’s pain. Am I worthy of Love and Forgiveness regardless of the pain I have caused others? Have I EARNED grace with the good I’ve done? Does it discount the bad? Do I seek comfort in knowing that there are people who are “worse” than me?

Or do I seek comfort in knowing that we are ALL children of God. We are ALL worthy of Love and Forgiveness. That, on the day I was born, on the day ALL of us were born, we provided another opportunity for Love to enter the world, received by us, transmitted through us. How do I know this? Feel this? Love is like a candle. There is no scarcity of Love. If I light another candle with the candle in front of me, the light of the original candle is not diminished. Light, like Love, multiplies. Hell does not exist because Undiminished Love does exist. Light vanquishes the darkness of Hell.

Still, the allure of Hell is persistent. It is easier, takes less effort, to believe that I am better than one other person than it is to believe that I am JUST LIKE every other person. Imperfect but just as capable of multiplying and transmitting Undiminished Love. And we are all worthy of Love. Let the Light of Love vanquish the darkness of Hell.