Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Is this a good Christian thought?
I don't normally read David Horowitz' FrontPageMag.com site, but there was an article about this site on Media Matters for America. The article that caught my eye is Dennis Prager's Is it Wrong to Hope Arafat is in Hell? The article continues by trying to answer three questions:
I believe that it is wrong to ask such a question. The fate of other people is not a Christians' concern. When someone in our parish or family dies, we pray that they are in heaven, that God has 'welcomed them home.' When our 'enemies' die, why is it acceptable to pray that they are in eternal torment?
To justify the belief in Hell, Prager starts with "Among those who pride themselves in being what is deemed sophisticated in our time, the notion of hell is either absurd, immoral or both." Why this attack on a 'cultural elite'? I have no idea. There seems to be a backlash agaisnt education in America right now. When the Morning Sedition has reports from the 'War on Brains' they are being satirical, but there is a buried truth in it: The neo-conservatives seem to have this belief that education and intelligence is a bad thng.
There is also an artifact of the Liberal-Progressive/Conservative-Tradtional conflict that defines 'good Biblical scholarship' as 'what agrees with my belief.' Both sides are at fault on this one, but I digress. Prager continues his argument for belief in Hell with: "For if there is a just God, it is inconceivable that those who do evil and those who do good have identical fates." I have no problem stating that God is a Just God (capitalization is important here) but we might not understand God's definition of Justice. God may use a greater and superior definition of Justice than any human has come up with. Even by our best human understanding of the concept, Prager is right. If everyone goes to heaven despite how they lived, then what prevents people from being evil now? It's not the best argument, and it really doesn't hold up to my core belief that God created everything as Good.
But I will allow that I belief that there are different fates for the afterlife: how we live our lives has some influence on what happens to us after death. Why does the afterlife of the 'evil' have to be eternal punishment? I have felt that if, after I die, I am found lacking and sent to Hell, I will praise God as I go because it will finally be the proof I'm unfortutately looking for that everything I know to be True is factual as well. I am more of the belief that, unless reincarnation is part of the plan, those who are unrepetantly evil are not punished in eternal hellfire. Their souls are simply extinguished, but even this gives me problems because everything about the ministry of Jesus was turning our lives towards God. How many chances do we get? As many as it takes. I'm still working this one out.
As far as his second question, I think his review of Arafat's life misses a crucial detail. I will be the first to admit that I have not given Yassar Arafat a close look, like I have with my own father, but I seem to remember Arafat going to a lot of meetings with a rifle in one hand and an olive branch in the other, and Isreal always chose the rifle. Peace, to John Lennon's chagrin, was never given a chance between Israel and Palestine.
Prager finishes with
A decent human being, one who followed the teaching of Christ, would want the cruelest of people to turn back to God's way. Prager is trying to use some odd standard of decency to justify his hate of another human being. Didn't Jesus tell us that this was behavior to be avoided? ¶ 9:35 AM
First, is there a hell? Can rational people believe in such a thing?
Second, if there is a hell, does Arafat merit going there? And can any of us mortals judge a person worthy of hell?
Third, if there is a hell, is it acceptable to hope someone who we believe merits it goes there?
I believe that it is wrong to ask such a question. The fate of other people is not a Christians' concern. When someone in our parish or family dies, we pray that they are in heaven, that God has 'welcomed them home.' When our 'enemies' die, why is it acceptable to pray that they are in eternal torment?
To justify the belief in Hell, Prager starts with "Among those who pride themselves in being what is deemed sophisticated in our time, the notion of hell is either absurd, immoral or both." Why this attack on a 'cultural elite'? I have no idea. There seems to be a backlash agaisnt education in America right now. When the Morning Sedition has reports from the 'War on Brains' they are being satirical, but there is a buried truth in it: The neo-conservatives seem to have this belief that education and intelligence is a bad thng.
There is also an artifact of the Liberal-Progressive/Conservative-Tradtional conflict that defines 'good Biblical scholarship' as 'what agrees with my belief.' Both sides are at fault on this one, but I digress. Prager continues his argument for belief in Hell with: "For if there is a just God, it is inconceivable that those who do evil and those who do good have identical fates." I have no problem stating that God is a Just God (capitalization is important here) but we might not understand God's definition of Justice. God may use a greater and superior definition of Justice than any human has come up with. Even by our best human understanding of the concept, Prager is right. If everyone goes to heaven despite how they lived, then what prevents people from being evil now? It's not the best argument, and it really doesn't hold up to my core belief that God created everything as Good.
But I will allow that I belief that there are different fates for the afterlife: how we live our lives has some influence on what happens to us after death. Why does the afterlife of the 'evil' have to be eternal punishment? I have felt that if, after I die, I am found lacking and sent to Hell, I will praise God as I go because it will finally be the proof I'm unfortutately looking for that everything I know to be True is factual as well. I am more of the belief that, unless reincarnation is part of the plan, those who are unrepetantly evil are not punished in eternal hellfire. Their souls are simply extinguished, but even this gives me problems because everything about the ministry of Jesus was turning our lives towards God. How many chances do we get? As many as it takes. I'm still working this one out.
As far as his second question, I think his review of Arafat's life misses a crucial detail. I will be the first to admit that I have not given Yassar Arafat a close look, like I have with my own father, but I seem to remember Arafat going to a lot of meetings with a rifle in one hand and an olive branch in the other, and Isreal always chose the rifle. Peace, to John Lennon's chagrin, was never given a chance between Israel and Palestine.
Prager finishes with
Just as any decent human being would want good people to be rewarded in whatever existence there is after this life, they would want the cruelest of people to be punished.
So, of course, I hope Yasser Arafat is in hell. It means that a just God rules the universe. If you think that is hard-hearted, consider the alternative, that one of the most corrupt and cruel human beings of the past half-century is resting in peace. Whoever isn't bothered by that is the one with the hard heart.
A decent human being, one who followed the teaching of Christ, would want the cruelest of people to turn back to God's way. Prager is trying to use some odd standard of decency to justify his hate of another human being. Didn't Jesus tell us that this was behavior to be avoided? ¶ 9:35 AM
