So, I’m going to hell. As are you, you and you. Oh, don’t believe me? Well, have you ever lied, stolen, smoked pot, drank alcohol, swore or had premarital sex? Are you gay? Are you a female? Are you a heathen? Do you have heroes – Oprah, Buddha, Bob Marley – or idols?
This may sound like a badly written evangelical advertisement, perhaps the kind you find randomly in laundromats or old arcades.
But in actuality, it’s this message of hatred that brought itself to the ETSU campus last week in the form of camouflage and bigotry. And there it stayed for three days as people gathered to witness, in front of the Sherrod Library.
Like most students, I was mesmerized by the hysteria that greeted me as I passed by the library, making my way from Rogers-Stout to the cafeteria.
However, what I did not expect to find was that there were not only a handful of Christians telling me that I was going to hell (after all, that’s nothing new) but that there were also many more saying that I wasn’t. Now I’m confused.
What I heard as I stood there each day was the same message told two different ways. The visitors – extremists – preached that if the students of ETSU did not repent, and do so quickly, that not a single one of us would ever see the pearly gates of heaven.
Meanwhile, the home team – kind, understanding Christians – screamed and held their signs in protest saying that God’s love was limitless and not biased. How could it be biased if, as the Bible says, we all sin and God loves His children?
God loves you but not your sin! God loves me regardless of my sin! This is what I heard for three days.
By the third day, it seemed that the protests had resorted to mudslinging and perhaps the focus of the message was turned toward homosexual students.
Obviously, this was the intended message all along. Extremists do not go to a college campus to preach about murders and adulterers. They go to tell us that we’ll burn in hell for those that we love, for our youthful experimentations and dirty mouths.
Death is a cure for a generation out of hand.
Not only had the extreme message shifted but so had the way in which students reacted to the message. Openly gay students kissed, made light of AIDS and proclaimed that God loved them for who they were.
Signs showed quotes of atheism and Wicca. One, evidentially intended to humiliate those preaching, read, “If you think this is a sheet of paper, you’re going to hell.”
As the Christians took on their greatest enemy – the Christians – I stood in the background and tried to make sense of what was happening.
I could not wrap my mind around the two views, having sprung from the same doctrine, yet so very different from one another.
Direct quotes would assure that the Christian God was one of wrath and hate for sin. Yet only a few minutes later, another message would erupt from somewhere else in the crowd, a message of the assurance of God’s love.
What is interesting is how there were so many people able to find humor in the messages that these extremist visitors brought.
Yes, there is no doubt that what these people had to say was nothing short of hilarious but so was much of the contradictory opposition coming from the crowd.
How is it that God could loves each of us – cherish our very existence – yet warn us of the eternal damnation which awaits us for our heresy?
Jesus dined with the lowest of the low to teach a lesson of understanding. And as the Bible says, it’s the job of each Christian to do the same.
But sadly, that apparently does not mean supporting ways and lifestyles that will lead to hell. Because, according to what these people believe, that would be a sin.
I find the idea that one single text could wreak such havoc on a society to be frustrating and sickening.
What is expected of humans – being full of flaws – when this one great benevolent being could not even see this one task through with accuracy: the writing of the Bible?
How is it to be expected that there won’t be misinterpretations when there are so many contradictions within its pages?
As the war between good and evil wages on, the supreme egotistical God, worshipped by so many of us, sits on his throne content.
There is so much animosity and unhappiness in searching for an answer which does not exist – for a life that is built on myth.
When you free yourself from this theological game and realize that your soul is not a tally, one point for God or the devil, you are able to fade into the background of such protests, open your eyes fully and see that today is enough. After all, it’s here and not an eternity away.
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
– Stephen Roberts

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