For the past week I have been asking some uncomfortable questions of Christians. Yesterday a reader of this blog posted a question to me…
“Again Dear Neale I must ask you…..you have claimed to have direct dialogue with God Himself, why are you asking mere mortals these questions? :)”
My answer is here, but first…a note on this Saturday about the passing of Tony Snow, former press secretary to President Bush. While I did not agree with his politics, I always loved his style. Tony Snow was a classic television jorunalist turned public servant who brought panache to politics, loved his work, and loved his country. I am sorry to hear of his passing, and all of my good thoughts and prayers go to his wife and children today. As for Tony, I know with all my heart that he is in a wonderful, wonderful place today, Home with God…
…and, CNN reports this morning: “Dr. Michael DeBakey, the world-famous cardiovascular surgeon who pioneered such now-common procedures as bypass surgery and invented a host of devices to help heart patients, died Friday night at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, officials announced. He was 99.”
Dr. DeBakey was a true medical pioneer to whom many owe so much. He is given the thanks of a deeply appreciative Humanity.
Now, my response to that blog question….
I am asking mere mortals these questions because I want to find out what the opinion of mere mortals is. I want to see if I can learn first-hand from the readers of this blog (and other bloggers who post here at Beliefnet) just what their human rationales are for the things that they believe.
I have asked here in the past week…
1. Does Christianity really claim that God sends all non-Christians to hell upon their death, regardless of the kind of life they have lived?
2. If so, why? What is your understanding of why God would do this?
Then, yesterday, I asked…”Is it really the wish of the Lord that only human beings with male parts may serve Him as members of the clergy, or as bishops in His church?”
I am asking these questions because I want us — all of us — to confront our own beliefs surrounding these issues. Do we really believe stuff like this? Did God say that women are not worthy to become bishops? Or priests?
Do we really believe that half of the world’s people are going to hell because — even though they may have lived exemplary lives — they did not come to God through Christ?
Does this include little babies?
Why does God care how someone gets Back Home?
For that matter, who says that God is a ‘Him’? Are we absolutely certain that God has a penis? Is it possible that God has a vagina?
I am daring people to address these questions — and I was hoping that Christian writers, including those who blog right here on Beliefnet, might help me understand their thinking, and the thinking of their church, on such matters.
I know what I believe, and I know what God tells me about these things, but what I really want to do is start a dialogue….find out what others believe, and why.
Is the Bible the literal Word of God? Are we to take the words of the Bible as literal truth?
Now let me ask you this. I told a Christian friend recently that I have learned from Bible scholars that the Gospel writers did not live in the time of Christ, never walked with Christ, and wrote their gospels many years after Christ left the earth.
Further, I have read that the gospels were not even written by four men named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but were, in fact, compilations of notes and writings of several scribes, collected and given these names for simple literary purposes.
My Christian friend said no, I am wrong, I have been misinformed. He said the Gospel writers all did, indeed, walk with Christ and wrote their own reports of his life based on personal witness and personal experience.
Okay, friends…what is true about this? Does anybody know? Does anybody have any connections with theologians or theology professors at Princeton, etc., who might tell us?
What is true about all this? What is true? Dare we ask such questions?
I am going to dare to ask the Unaskable Questions from now on in this blog. This blog has as its purpose the awakening of people to their own curiosities and yearnings to know What God Wants.
I have written a book by that name (What God Wants, Atria Books – available from Amazon.com). I would dearly love you to give it a read and tell me what you think. It is a short book and can be read in a couple of hours. We need to discuss this now. We need to ask the questions posed in that book, right here, right now — before it is too late.
Humanity is at a crossroad. Iran is firing test missiles. A man has just given birth to a baby daughter in Oregon (I am not kidding). The world is changing so fast that we don’t even know what is happening anymore.
But one thing is certain…everything we do, individually and collectively, is a product of our beliefs. So what do YOU believe?
Is Jesus, and is God, telling us that all Jews, all Muslims, all Buddhists, all of the world’s people who are not Christian, are going to hell?
How about the kind of Christian they are? Does it matter if they are Catholic or Lutheran or Methodist or Baptist or some other sect or denomination? (The Pope not long ago reaffirmed that the Catholic Church was the only One True Church, so this is not an idle question…)
More broadly, is there even a ‘hell” to go to? Why would God make us suffer unending torture simply for making the wrong choice of religions, even if we otherwise led exemplary lives? Where are the other Beliefnet bloggers on this topic?
(Ahem…)