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Hell at Once

Red buds with rain and streetlamp.

I'm not one to lose sleep over how terrible our society is becoming. A wise man once reminded us that "it's hard to remember we're alive for the first time." No one on earth, despite their claims, has ever done this all before and I imagine that people were just as confused in the idyllic past as they are today.

However, I'm not entirely sure about that. Depending on how you feel about religion, westerners were either more or less confused back when they all believed in hell. My interest in economics, for better or worse, makes me look at religious structures as governments, organizations that impose a certain set of laws to mollify some of humankind's less desirable tendencies in order to maintain stability, and I'm interested in how the doctrine of hell played into the legal/religious codes of our ancestors.

UMMM NICE!

While Dustin and I were on the road up to Pittsburgh a few weeks back, we came across a pamphlet/comic called This Was Your Life! in which we read the story of a fairly average guy who meets his maker. To his horror, this average guy is forced to watch a movie of his life while he's being judged. He lived a decent life, but had done some things that he was ashamed of and was ultimately condemned to hell for failing to accept Jesus. While Dustin and I laughed at it, I'm comfortable speaking for both of us when I say that we found the author's easy condemnation of the comic's main character rather disturbing.

I'm sure part of it has to do with our Mormon upbringings. Mormon theology has all but eliminated the concept of hell as the firey mythological cave that westerners typically imagine. We have a version of purgatory, but it's finite, and once that's over, the vast majority of God's children are assigned to one of three varying degrees of glorious heaven!

I suppose it's the Mormon in me that keeps me from grasping or seriously acknowledging a God who would banish anyone to an eternity of absolute misery, but I understand why a religion as a government would want its devotees to believe in such a thing. Based on the sins in bold text in the image above, it seems that if the leaders of a community wanted obedient children, honest workers, few illegitimate children, and all around more peaceful citizens, a good way to keep them in check would be to hang the threat of hell over them. Simple enough.

It seems to me, however, that this doctrine doesn't work anymore. As far as I know, I can't think of anyone, Mormon or not, who actually believes in eternal hell. This shouldn't indicate that most people don't believe in hell anymore, but based on my experience, it seems that many westerners have a hard time conceiving of a God who both loves us yet is willing to doom us at the same time. So, what keeps us in line?

There are some who fear that growing secularism is eliminating fear of God and, subsequently, the fear of sin is on its way out too, but I'm not so concerned. An interesting dialogue from this past week's Sunday school illustrates the opposing viewpoints perfectly. One girl lamented that we live in a "consequence free" society, a society which allowed people to run wild without ever having to face the consequences of their actions. However, another girl countered by explaining that the consequences were still there regardless of how one might look to society for approval. A life of hypocrisy, pride, whore-mongering, or theft isn't a peaceful or disease-free life, the consequences are built right into the lifestyle. It doesn't take the threat of hell to make people realize that anymore.

Anyhow, as secular democracy has brought our rulers closer to us, so have our religious leaders stepped out of confessionals and down from altars to meet us as fellow "first-timers." Few of us are comfortable imagining a hell for our friends, and I don't think we have to. Religions are learning that their devotees are capable of understanding that a vice-free life is simply a better life, and that they'll strive for goodness even without the threat of an eternity of...