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发帖数: 3382 | 1 http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/22/different-takes-should
Editor’s note: Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times bestselling author. His
latest book is "Crazy For God."
By Frank Schaeffer, Special to CNN
Is it any coincidence that the latest war of religion that started on
September 11, 2001, is being fought primarily between the United States and
the Islamic world? It just so happens that no subgroups of humanity are more
ingrained with the doctrine of hell than conservative Muslims and
conservative Christians.
And nowhere on earth have conservative Christians been closer to controlling
foreign policy than here in the United States. And nowhere on earth have
conservative Muslims been more dominant than in the countries from which the
9/11 extremists originated – Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.
What a pair George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden made! On the one hand, an
American president who was a born-again evangelical with a special "heart"
for the state of Israel and its importance to the so-called end times, and
on the other hand a terrorist leader who believed that he was serving God by
ridding the Arabian Peninsula of an American presence and cleansing the "
defiled" land of Palestine of what he believed were “invader Jews.”
Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter
So whether you're an atheist or not, the issue of who's going to hell or not
matters because there are a lot of folks on this planet – many of them
extraordinarily well-armed - from born-again American military personnel to
Muslim fanatics, who seriously believe that God smiles upon them when they
send their enemies to hell.
And so my view of "hell" encompasses two things: First, the theological
question about whether a land of eternal suffering exists as God's "great
plan" for most of humanity.
Second, the question of the political implications of having a huge chunk of
humanity believe in damnation for those who disagree with their theology,
politics and culture, as if somehow simply killing one's enemies is not
enough.
What most people don't know is that there's another thread running through
both Christianity and Islam that is far more merciful than the
fundamentalists’ take on salvation, judgment and damnation.
CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories
Paradise, which Muslims believe is the final destination of the society of
God’s choice, is referred to in the Quran as "the home of peace"
“Our God,” Muslims are asked to recite, “You are peace, and peace is from
You.”
Since Christianity is my tradition, I can say more about it. One view of God
- the more fundamentalist view - is of a retributive God just itching to
punish those who "stray."
The other equally ancient view, going right back into the New Testament era,
is of an all-forgiving God who in the person of Jesus Christ ended the era
of scapegoat sacrifice, retribution and punishment forever.
As Jesus said on the cross: "Forgive them for they know not what they do."
That redemptive view holds that far from God being a retributive God seeking
justice, God is a merciful father who loves all his children equally. This
is the less-known view today because fundamentalists - through
televangelists and others - have been so loud and dominant in North American
culture.
But for all that, this redemptive view is no less real.
Why does our view of hell matter? Because believers in hell believe in
revenge. And according to brain chemistry studies, taking revenge and
nurturing resentment is a major source of life-destroying stress.
For a profound exploration of the madness caused by embracing the “justice
” of “godly” revenge and retribution, watch the film “Hellbound?”
The film shows how the "hell" of revenge thinking, and the resulting
unhinging of some people’s brains through their denial of human empathy,
leads them to relish the violent future of suffering that they predict
awaits the “lost” in hell.
Do we really want to go back to a time of literalistic religion. Wasn’t 9/
11 enough of an argument against retributive religion?
We need “hell” like a hole in the head. It’s time for the alternative of
empathetic merciful religion to be understood. | l*****a
发帖数: 38403 | 2 应该被abandon的是天堂， 我觉得，宗教狂的天堂 |
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