I am inclined to believe that adults are Nature's Way of producing more happy children whose mission in life is to play.
(Or, if you prefer: adults are Super-Nature's way of producing more buoyant kids.)
Routinely, children "get" the kingdom of heaven.
Routinely, adults become disillusioned -- if not bitter -- and do not"get" the kingdom of heaven..
I do not believe in the God of the Old Testament.
I am not even attracted to that God.
That angry, vengeful God is every bit as cruel as he is loving.
And deliberate cruelty -- particularly when cruelty is embedded in the nature of a deity -- is, for me, a deal breaker.
Adoration of Yahweh's deep-rooted qualities of anger and vengefulness strikes me as the result of cosmic Stockholm Syndrome: all you need to do "to be safe" (and being safe is crucial to the "Christian" "conservative" mind) is abjectly subject yourself to the brutal, iron will of "The Head Man" who will, as night follows day, immerse you - for all eternity in The Lake of Unquenchable Fire, IF you do not do everything in your power to pacify Him even if it requires abject, kowtowing servility to an explosive mad man whom you would not even want for a friend.
Stockholm Syndrome
I doubt there is a single "Christian" "conservative" on God's green earth
who can explain away their fearful judgmentalism - at least not
to the satisfaction of anyone who hasn't been indoctrinated out of their wits.
And those "Christian" "conservatives" who might try to explain it away
are fundamentally committed to justifying their own fear and judgmental malice.
Far too often, fear and judgmental malice are "Christian" "conservatism's" daily bread.
These folk would be lost without their persistent (perversely comforting) quest to insure that the people they perceive as "bad guys" (if only by virtue of being "left of center") get punished.
And preferably, they will be punished - eventually - with hellish torment.
Then, there is this reminder of Truth...
1 John 4:18
Biblical Literalism And The Cultivation Of Hatred
Biblical Literalism And The Cultivation Of Hatred
The God Of The Bible Commands All Men To Stone Rebellious Children To Death. (In The Quran There Is Nothing As Cruel As God's Deuteronomic Demand That Your Own Children Be Killed For The Triviality Of Adolescent Rebelliousness)
Biblical Violence: Is The Bible More Violent Than The Quran? Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years
"Is The Bible More Violent Than The Quran?"
Are Pro-Lifers The Deadliest "Baby Killers" Of All?
*****
Readers unfamiliar with Evangelical views may have balked at this email's subject line in which I said that evangelicals believe God has "hellish torment in store for most humans."
The following clarification of this widespread (if not ubiquitous) evangelical-conservative-
"Christian" "conservatives" are almost always "know it alls."
And they are every bit as obnoxious as all the prissy, finger-wagging know-it-alls we knew in Middle School.
Even Thomas Aquinas -- who lived in the 12th century and dedicated himself to biblical exegesis --
had the good sense to say:
Where are the biblical literalists when we need them?
Finally, a breath of fresh air!
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