everybody's a sociologist
I was hunting down some Cipro 750s and thinking about a comment I had made earlier to a guy about not believing in hell when I had what might be my best idea of the day, which was this:I don't believe in hell, but I once did. I therefore thought that there were some people who deserved to be in hell, in order for there to be a hell for them to be in. I thought they deserved to be in hell for being homosexual, for killing people, for stealing stuff, for saying words when they prayed other than words that sound like "JESUS". Then I got my own identity worked out and everything was much, much better.
Anyway, the engine that makes the concept "hell" work, is the concept of "deserving". In order to believe in hell, one must believe that there are things that people can do that can't be forgiven.
It is required that people who believe in hell always have to be angry, in order to believe it exists.
The last time I checked, "family values" was code language for a righteous indignation fueled by sheer hatred. So in a nutshell, I think I've identified at least a good part of where the odious flavor of right wing nasty comes from.
The same people that value forgiveness as the great christian virtue will not necessarily be the ones that are addicted to the negative cycles of shame and guilt and avoiding the raging inferno, wherever it is. The stupid people are the "hell" ones. What I mean to say is if you're a forgiveness christian, not a hell one, I am more amenable to your presence than I was before I reached for the Cipro 750s. Of these two forms of christians, the hate-mongers have clearly gained the upper hand culturally. It's all a part of the Bush-following church-state war-loving hegemony that's going on right now.
The belief in hell is the stubborn worship of one's own existing biases. It's the worship of pain and suffering. It's I'm-good-and-you-suck worship.
Christianity never saw a pagan ritual it couldn't co-opt and improve, and hell is no different than a hex or curse you throw on someone under your breath when they, say, cut you off on the highway. (The victims of my curses happen to be driving Pontiacs a lot of the time). But the hell-believers aren't hoping your corn won't grow this season, it's an eternity of your excruciating pain they're really hoping for.
The sense of self-importance that comes along with hell is fundamentally incompatible with the resolution to do anything but destroy otherness. A singularity of purpose, while perhaps very useful in polarizing a populace against enemy invaders, is diametrically opposed to the idea of consideration.
Family values my ass.
I'm just really pretty surprised I'd never thought this, or even read it, in these terms before. Personal aside: this is about as close as I get to being happy, in some ways. Something fuzzy has come into focus.
It's crucial that the threat of hell exist, of course, to skip that discussion later. Otherwise, without a claim to total and sole relevance, the lessons of Christ become just another competing philosophy, and in many ways, an inferior one.
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