A Tour Bus Ride from Hell to Heaven
War gave me faith in 1973 when I was blinded by shrapnel in
a missile explosion. War almost took my faith away in 2009 when I saw the
people we had invaded in Iraq trying to live in the wake of all we had done
through misguided policy. Were the wretched people a thousand feet below our
helicopters going to Hell because they did not believe the way a 300-pound
millionaire preacher on TV said they should?
If rich televangelists were right, God was unjust.
In Iraq, I re-read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. Lewis
says the doors of Hell are locked from the inside. He says in many of his works
that Pride is the worst sin, a thousand times worse than Lust. The proud will lock the doors of Hell from
the inside rather than admit they are wrong.
The central story in the Great Divorce is a tour bus ride that
takes residents of Hell to visit Heaven.
All but one of the tourists decides to return to Hell. They could all stay, but it would mean asking
forgiveness and admitting they were wrong.
Their punishment is not the exquisite torment in Dante or the flames
licking the pews in Hellfire preaching.
The only punishment is separation from God forever.
The problem with most visions of Hell is that they are
radically unjust. How could someone who
murders another man and is then executed for his crime get the same punishment
as Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot? Could Jerry Falwell Jr. really be going to
Heaven after selling out his faith for access to the most corrupt Presidential
candidate ever?
If the price of admission to Heaven begins with saying, “I
was wrong, forgive me” then Heaven is open to everyone, and Hell is home to
everyone who insists they are right. As
Lewis noted elsewhere, that means Hell is disproportionally home to the rich,
the old and the opinionated. So I am properly worried about my own soul.
I can’t say that this insight from the Great Divorce made
the life of faith easy. But it keeps me from being distracted by the claims and
counter claims of faith leaders and followers who are absolutely sure they are
doing God’s will. In this context I know all defenders of God are wrong.
Whenever someone makes punishing the sins of others their
purpose in life, they are always wrong. Always. Jihad claims to be defense of
God. Racism exalts one group over another and uses God as their excuse. All
defenders of God from every faith will lock Hell’s doors behind them: whether
they wave a bloody sword or preach from a plush pulpit for millions of donated
dollars.
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