Taking Hell Out of Church

When Timothy McVeigh was executed for bombing the Oklahoma City federal building, the Rev. Chris Lane preached he did not believe McVeigh would be damned eternally to hell. There would be consequences, to be sure, but also a chance for McVeigh to reconcile with God, he told his United Methodist congregation.

A worshipper challenged Lane after the service, asking, "What you are going to do if you're wrong and you have to face that at the end of your life?"

Lane said he was willing to take the chance, based on his belief God does not lock anyone up in a place of endless torment.

"Why would a God of unlimited grace close the door on us ever having access to that again?" asked Lane, co-pastor of Genesis United Methodist Church in Ada Township.

In churches nationwide, hell is being frozen out as clergy find themselves increasingly hesitant to sermonize on Christianity's outpost for lost souls.

The violence and torture Dante described in the "Inferno" and Hieronymus Bosch illustrated on canvas centuries ago became cultural fossils in most mainstream Christian denominations -- a story line that no longer resonates with churchgoers.

"There has been a shift in religion from focusing on what happens in the next life to asking, 'What is the quality of this life we're leading now?'" said Harvey Cox Jr., an author, religious historian and professor at Harvard Divinity School. "You can go to a whole lot of churches week after week and you'd be startled even to hear a mention of hell."

That is not always true in religiously conservative West Michigan, however, where many pastors say they confront worshippers with the painful and permanent consequence of turning away from God.

"We don't paint horrid pictures trying to scare people away from hell," said the Rev. Jim Carlson, associate pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids. "It's more the idea there are two eternal destinies.

"We believe the Bible is true and we're going to tell the truth. If the truth is sometimes uncomfortable, I'm sorry."

Hell is far from dead. A May 2001 Gallup Poll of adults nationwide found 71 percent believe in hell.

"It's being muted, certainly in mainline churches of a more liberal bent, and even in more traditional conservative churches," said John Hesselink, a retired professor of systematic theology and former president at Western Theological Seminary in Holland.

While some evangelical scholars adopted a less literal view of hell, many church leaders who push for growth would rather not deal with it, Hesselink said.

"They want to appeal to people. They're not going to talk about sin and anything that's terribly negative -- above all, hell."

Hell's fall from fashion indicates how key portions of Christian theology are influenced by a secular society that stresses individualism over authority and the human psyche over moral absolutes. The rise of psychology, the philosophy of existentialism and the consumer culture dumped buckets of water on hell.

The tendency to downplay damnation grew in recent years as nondenominational ministries, with their focus on everyday issues such as child-rearing and career success, proliferated and loyalty to churches deteriorated.

"It's just too negative," said Bruce Shelley, a senior professor of church history at Denver Theological Seminary. "Churches are under enormous pressure to be consumer-oriented. Churches today feel the need to be appealing rather than demanding."

Megachurches routinely pay for market research on what will draw people to their ministries and keep them coming back.

"Once pop evangelism went into market analysis, hell was just dropped," said Martin Marty, professor emeritus of religion and culture at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

A 1998 poll by Barna Research Group, a Ventura, Calif., company that studies Christian trends nationwide, found church-shopping has become a way of life: one in seven adults changes churches each year; one in six regularly rotates among congregations.

Even among some "born-again" churches, hell is a rare topic of conversation. Born-again Christians believe in hell, but they also believe their decision to embrace Christ has earned them a one-way ticket in the other direction.

"When you have a group of people who are born again, you're not going to hell," said Bob Anderson, 51, a lawyer who attends an evangelical church in Fullerton, Calif. "So why talk about it?"

Traditional denominations also pushed hell to the margins. The Presbyterian Church (USA)'s first catechism, devised a few years ago by a committee, mentions hell only once.

George Hunsinger, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and the catechism's principal author, wanted the document to address hell more directly and "talk about divine judgment in a responsible way." But the committee rejected the idea without much debate.

"It's a failure of nerve by churches that are not wanting to take on a nonpopular stance," Hunsinger said.

Where once hell was viewed as a literal, geographic location, it now more often is seen as a state of the soul.

In 1999, Pope John Paul II made headlines by saying hell should be seen not as a fiery underworld but as "the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy."

As much as that seemed like a departure from church teachings, the pope's words were not new. The Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s moved away from the view of hell as a gothic torture chamber as part of the Second Vatican Council's modernization of church teachings.

Individual priests kept hell's fires burning for years, helped by a Catholic catechism of beliefs published in 1891 whose tone one priest calls "positively medieval." A new catechism, published in 1994, uses gentler language and emphasizes that hell's chief punishment is the separation from God.

"When you take (hell) away as a threat, everything changes," Marty said. "Who goes to confession anymore? Time was, a (Catholic) church had 16 booths and people snaked around the block. Today, a church might have one left."

Area ministers say they do not try to scare people into salvation, but hell is hell just the same.

"Anytime you try to scare somebody and put pressure on them, you're going to turn them off," said the Rev. Bill Trim, pastor of Uptown Assembly of God in Grand Rapids.

Trim preaches that the everlasting fire, snakes and scorpions described in the Bible are real, but says he emphasizes the rewards of heaven.

"I try to stay positive on this. If you don't, maybe you'll get one out of five (committing to Christ), but the other four will say, 'Stick it in your ear.'"

The Rev. Brian Bosscher is not so sure the Bible's lakes of fire, weeping and gnashing of teeth are literal descriptions of hell. But he is sure it is a real place, and Jesus "was trying to give people a sense of an incredibly horrible future he was sent to help them avoid."

Bosscher says he does not avoid hell while preaching at Sunshine Community Church, a Christian Reformed congregation of 1,200-plus worshippers in Grand Rapids Township.

While not offering Christ as "fire insurance," Bosscher said he cannot preach about Jesus and ignore hell.

"If I'm going to be faithful to Christ and his word, I don't have a choice. I'm mistaken if I leave that out because some people might be offended by it."

Indeed, it is surprising how often Jesus refers to hell, said the Rev. Kent Fry, pastor of Third Reformed Church. The other surprise is Jesus usually directs his warnings to Christian believers -- a point Fry often makes to his Grand Rapids congregation.

"The believer is in danger of being lost if they do not live out the grace that they know of," Fry said.

While seeing hell as a spiritual state of afterlife, not a literal place, to which "very few" will be consigned, Fry said many preachers are tempted to neglect it.

"I think the mainline Christian church has lapsed so much into wanting to feed people positive messages that we're missing a message that needs to be preached."

Maybe so, but the Rev. Tom Toeller-Novak rarely mentions hell and admits he is a bit uncomfortable with the topic. He views it as a metaphor for people hurting others and alienating themselves from God.

"I don't think Christian doctrine is any more clear than mentioning hell as a distinct possibility," said Toeller-Novak, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Holland.

But he does not ignore the concept of hell entirely, as he tries to alleviate the suffering of "people who are tortured by sin or guilt."

"Paying attention to the good news of Jesus will help people escape the pain of that self-inflicted hell."

At Genesis United Methodist, the Rev. Chris Lane sees no need to preach about a "fear-based faith," but only about the loneliness people experience by cutting themselves off from God. He hopes that when God's kingdom fully arrives, the notion of hell will be vanquished.

"Left to human scales of justice, there would always be the need for hell," Lane said. "The God of unlimited grace weighs it differently in the end."

Sadly, Rn, for everyone of these types of apostates, there is one on the other extreme constantly trying to put people back under the law. Satan seems quite hip to the fact that are just as many deceived folk out there who want no liberty as there are those who want no hell. Just as many who think they are going to make it on their works or church membership as there are those who think they are going to make it because there is no wrath or justice.

Sadly, Rn, for everyone of these types of apostates, there is one on the other extreme constantly trying to put people back under the law.

I have just met acopuple on the Neverending thread.....one in a non trinitarian church the other in a Messianic church....just digging into a graceless salvation ...

You are right Satan is working both ends

Msgr. Sweeny's sermons never stray far from the central Christian message: the salvation of souls. He says Mass at varying times on Sundays but officiates at 7:30 p.m. every Wednesday, and those who have never been to Our Lady may want to go then. Perhaps they should go soon. Msgr. Sweeny is 77, and although he is in good health and looks 10 years younger, the bishop of San Jose, Patrick J. McGrath, appears determined to force him out. Numerous signed petitions and phone calls to Bishop McGrath's office have been unavailing.

Priests are asked to submit a letter of retirement at age 75, but the shortage of priests is such that they are regularly asked to stay on. What happened here?

It's hard to say, precisely... More recently, someone in the pews complained to the bishop about a sermon that mentioned, if you can believe it, sin and hell. Finally, a disabled woman, whose bid to teach religion at Our Lady was turned down, e-mailed the diocese, threatening to sue under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Tradition 24 Hours a Day

Lane is a product of our many liberal seminaries. I am a Christian and a bible believer AS ARE many of our people. In my opinion, Lane is wrong and IMHO an unbeliever.

I have a friend who is a lay pastor from a nearby church who was required to attend "classes" at one of our nearby liberal indoctrination dens. The prof who addressed them said exactly the same thing: "Jesus spoke to the spirits in prison after his death," she said, "so, don't sweat it. They'll get another chance."

We are waging a serious war with unbelievers within our denomination, and we need those who will pray for us as we combat the darkness that seems so determined to prevail.

But, "In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world!"

In churches nationwide, hell is being frozen out as clergy find themselves increasingly hesitant to sermonize on Christianity's outpost for lost souls.

The vast majority of Protestant preachers and Catholic priests have become cowards when transmitting the tough parts of Christian faith. - People go to hell because they themselves have purposefully and unrepentantly distanced themselves from God. It is not God's fault - it is theirs. But the Bible and Jesus Christ mince no words in explaining what happens to people like that. The wheat will be separated from the chaff - the sheep from the goats - and it will be tough for the goats.

The prof who addressed them said exactly the same thing: "Jesus spoke to the spirits in prison after his death," she said, "so, don't sweat it. They'll get another chance."

God gives us our whole life on this Earth to seek him and come close to him in heart, soul and mind. That's more than fair. God loves us and wants us to make the right choice - and he gives us plenty of time to do so. But he doesn't give us forever. People who teach otherwise actually promote evil actions and thoughts and prevent the attainment of salvation for many - for who will repent when there is no need to? Preventing others' salvation must truly itself be a great sin.

drsj: "Pastors who preach in crystal cathedrals don't throw stones!"

ll: "I'm not so sure. I bet if we asked our friend Matchett PI he would say that Scheuller was all about "breaking the glass ceiling"."

You got it! That Arminian is one of the quintessential poster boys for today's pop-culture, emotion-driven/experiential feminized religion.

If one happens to tune in to his show, one may be treated to the ludicrous sight of him standing on his elevated pedestal holding the book from which he frequently "preaches".

It's a book he wrote.

"Indeed, it is surprising how often Jesus refers to hell, said the Rev. Kent Fry, pastor of Third Reformed Church. The other surprise is Jesus usually directs his warnings to Christian believers -- a point Fry often makes to his Grand Rapids congregation."

More correctly: "... to professing disciples." They are the ones who stopped following him around after he told them: "None can come to me unless it were given to him of my Father ..."

But to those that are his elect (those given to him of his Father) --- chosen before the foundation of the world --- he says that no one nor no thing can separate them from him or take them out of his hand. Ever.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.