Comments on: Faith, Pain, and Redemption: A look at violence in select Christian teachings

By: Shyheim Taylor

Shyheim Taylor — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:31:02 +0000

Hello,

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By: orland

orland — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:11:16 +0000

It’s really hard to believe the things that seem conflict in the real world but God’s word has no mistakes and always true. God is a loving God and He doesn’t want us to be punished because of our sins but instead He invites that all should come to repentance. He is also a just God that hates Sins people has always committed. He has to punish sin showing us His righteousness. Man can’t do something to escape from this punishment because of our sinful nature. Whatever good we do or we will do they are all filthy rugs before God that’s why God sent His only begotten Son to die for us. And this is the sacrificial love that God wants us to accept by faith hard to understand by our mind but being humble before God He will give us grace to accept all thing for His glory. Jesus really died for us and His death is our salvation from eternity in hell. Hell is a real place prepared for Satan and his followers. Satan is trying to bring all sinners with him in this eternal punishment but people who believe in God’s work of redemption through Jesus Christ and repented of their sins will no longer be bound in Hell for eternity. By faith repentant sinners should live. Heaven and Hell are real place both in extreme contast of eternal joy and eternal suffering. No religion can save people from hell only the One who died at the cross for our redemption and that He is Jesus Christ the son of God.

By: Miriam

Miriam — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:14:15 +0000

I used to be a die-hard Catholic woman when I was in high school. But when I met my fiance, that changed A LOT. Because he brought up a very good question: If God loves everyone and Jesus came down to save us from “Hell” then why would He allow members of and supporters of GLBT die? The reason why this struck home to me so hard? My sister is happily living with her girlfriend and their children. My sister took better care of me and loved me more than my own mother did (And still does).

To be honest, I don’t believe in hell either. You’re correct, it IS a control method to hold faith members in line. Why would they need to? Because sometimes people can’t always be peaceful. Sometimes we get a little big-headed and think we know it all. Dr. Zimbardo wrote a book on Man’s inherit evil after his Stanford Prison Experiment exemplifying that. This is why, I think, the leaders of some Christian religions hold fast to Hell (though to not such a huge extent), so they can keep their members in line.

As for Jesus’s Crucifixion… I will once again use Zimbardo as an example of why God sent his Son to Earth to die for us: God knows humans. He gave us Free Will. But when you have communities STONING people for not following the Commandments instead of trying to help them first, He looked at the world and went: “Umm… That’s not right.” But when met with opposition what do mediocre minds do? They use violence. The people loved Jesus’s teachings because the made sense and it made them think. He wasn’t supposed to come down with all the answers because not all answers are right for everyone. He went down loving everyone, even those who nailed him to the cross and ridiculed his good nature.

Though it’s sad… Christians today don’t understand that. Because rather than questioning everything they follow the herd like lambs to the slaughter. I commend people like you, here in this forum, that question and find other routes that let you be yourself and love everyone with an open mind and heart. You exemplify what I believe Jesus meant for us to become. And it’s my hope that one day Christians will open their eyes twice to see the world for how it needs to be.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 05:05:26 +0000

Excellent post. I have often had many of the same thoughts. Consideration of the conflict between God as a loving parent and the existance of Hell was the main motivation for my conversion to Unitarian Universalism.

I remember growing up in Baptist church when we were raising money to send missionaries to Bangladesh and being told that everyone in Bangladesh was going to hell because they weren’t Christian. It just seemed impossibly wrong to me. And, honestly, people who can just accept such concepts unquestioningly scare me.

By: Trish

Trish — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:35:08 +0000

Great read! )
For me – I have always thought the Bible (which was written by man) was nothing more than a book of fables for mankind to abide by. It has been interpreted and dissected by so many for so long that whatever its initial intent – so much has been lost in translation. So it’s anybody’s guess of it’s true meanings and intent. Despite all of that – there IS still an awful lot of violence in it – and all in the name of God.
My biggest beef has been —- when a so-called Loving God expects a display of one’s love toward him to be demonstrated through an act of violence, he is NOT, in my book, a “loving” God.
Yet, people believe what they will – for whatever reasons they have. And that’s OK. Whatever works for them. It’s all good. But the whole violence in the the name of God has never made sense to me – and never will. “Christians” play their Christian Card when it’s convenient and I say they’re hypocrites when they do.

By: Toriz

Toriz — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 18:29:26 +0000

The big question to me is, “if God sacrificed his only son to bring peace to humanity, why are so many of us suffering?” Because – as you pointed out – if anything the violence is getting worse, and quite often is done in the name of religeon. I don’t know where we’ll end up when we die, but if it’s anything like Earth, I’m not sure I want to go!