"God is a god of love," the radio preacher said this evening, "but be warned that He is also a god of judgment!" The preacher's delivery fell on the angry side.
So God's love is conditional. The greatest power in the universe, infinitely exceeding human understanding and even imagination, is unable to love His children more than quite a few parents I've known.
It's so unfortunate. I imagine that people who preach like this were subjected to an authoritarian male role model growing up. We all project what we learned from our main authority models as children onto the mystic concept of God. Research backs me up on both points.
Jesus, from what I learned, never dwelled on harsh judgment by the Father and instead focused on treating ourselves and others well after the example of a loving God. You have to go back to the Old Testament to find God acting punitively. But wasn't Jesus sent here to tell us that we weren't Getting It as far as God was concerned? That it's not the judgment but rather the love we need to practice? Of course, I suppose one needs a good example of loving in order to understand it. Loyalty and the fear of punishment aren't the same thing.
From listening to this preacher and others today I learned that humans are miserable creatures who can't do anything right and that we can't have original good thoughs and actions, so we need a parent figure to dump all our failings on and who will then tell us what to do, no questions asked and no individuality accepted. Again, the authoritarian father image.
My imagination over the years has also said that if God created us with differing ways of perceiving, understanding, thinking, and therefore acting, then one strict rut won't fit all. Surely God understands if I perceive Him in a different way than strict fundamentalism. If God is incapable of that small feat -- and again, I've known many parents who are able to do it -- then I have to confess that it isn't a very advanced god.
Oh, by the way, tonight's preacher spent the rest of the sermon talking about judgment. Didn't mention love anymore.
Some people approach mystery with fear and build temple walls to keep the misunderstood out; others welcome mystery as an ever-challenging journey. I would enjoy some company on the journey.
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I embrace the constant, ever changing mystery of my spiritual journey.
During my teenage years, I read and debated with all of the preachers and student preachers coming through my parent's church but only one accepted my views. He did not tell me I was going to hell or I was a bad person or God didn't love me. In fact, he encouraged my curiosities and congratulated me eveytime for coming up for an orginial thought or interpretation. He defended me in Sunday School when I was being verbally attacked for not thinking the same as the other teens. He did all of this unbenost to my parents who 'knew' God did not love me . . . just because.
When Pastor Tom left my parent's church to accept another assignment, I stopped debating with people in spiritual matters, within the church that is. I started talking and exchanging ideas with friends, and ended up taking a class my senior year of high school in Classical Ideas and World Religion. Out of all of the formal education I have received thus far, that class is still the best class I have chosen to take.
Unfortunately, I have met few others like me making the journey lonely at times. Thanks for writing this blog . . . I don't feel so alone.
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