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| Wrath in fire |
Sunday, September 21, 2014
God: Destroyer of All...
This morning, I woke up and went to mass with my parents. As we sat and listened to the sermon I heard how God is compassionate and forgiving. The priest spoke about how God forgives sinners every day. Never once did the priest yell that God may, "destroy any wicked man," (Edwards 122) at any given moment. I strongly disliked having to read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, it felt as if my religion was being personally insulted. Now I understand that back in the time of 1741 catholic priests were trying to gain followers for their religion and such; but the sad perversion of facts and twisting of the message of the Bible was sickening. Comparing God to the Devil so easily is in it's own way a sin. God's wrath may be painful but it doesn't mean we are set to experience it from day 1. It reminded me of how a politician of today's time will twist and contort facts to get the public to believe whatever the politician wants them to. In addition to going to church every Sunday I teach religious education classes to fourth graders on Sunday mornings and never in any of my time studying the catholic faith did I hear about God hanging a man, "over the pit of hell" (Edwards 122). This sermon we had to read was simply an inflammatory argument meant to scare Puritans into joining the church because it lacked true religious backgrounds and ideals. No true priest would use such harsh lies about God to "inspire" (and I use that term loosely) people to join the church.
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Matt,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. While reading this story, I couldn't help but feel a little bit appalled and violated. The accusatory tone of the story made me somewhat angry and surprised that those who considered themselves to be followers of Christ stated words to others that were so horrible.
I felt the same way while reading this sermon. It's hard to believe that a priest would describe God as comparable to the devil. It's true that committing sins is bad, but God is always forgiving in the end.
ReplyDeleteMatt, you hit the nail on the head. There is barely a distinction between the Devil and God until Edwards wants to act like the savior. I am not sure if I would consider him much of a priest.
ReplyDeleteThe piece was a bit infuriating to me as well. If God is someone who is loving, benevolent, and forgiving, how come fear is used to force faith in Him? Religion should be based on desire to believe, not the threat of torture. From a modern point of view, this piece is even more irrelevant, it doesn't consider those that belong to another religion. Are they doomed to torment in hell from the get-go? There is nothing wrong with encouraging religion, but using threats to increase membership is.
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