August 17
Hell, heaven, Sikhs and Christian education for kids
By Kay CampbellPage:
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What’s the goal of faith-based work: Getting people to believe something or offering help and healing regardless of beliefs?
The recent experience of Elly Scott, a brilliant young writer in Knoxville whom I’ve known since she was her preschool daughters’ age, raises this question for me.
A neighbor boy, 7, regularly climbs onto a church bus to ride 25 minutes from their inner-city neighborhood to a church in Knoxville’s suburbs. This child’s father is in prison. The grandmother who raised him died last year. He now lives in a run-down house with his mother, who, Elly says, seems to always be asleep.
In his case, what is meaningful religious education and what is psychological abuse?
Here’s Elly’s account:
“The little boy told my girls a few moments ago that a preacher said that if they didn’t believe in God, they were going to hell. My girls just stared at him round-eyed and open-mouthed.
“I broke a personal rule to not dispute other people’s religions and told him I thought that was a mean thing for the preacher to tell a little kid — and that I didn’t believe it anyway.
“Then I said ‘Um, why don’t you kids go outside and eat a Popsicle?’”
Now Elly is trying to figure out how to deal with this topic the next time it comes up.
“Can I tell a child that what he hears at church is mean and total bull? What is this church trying to accomplish by busing in all these vulnerable kids to listen to hate and fear?
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Comments
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An Inuit hunter asks a christian missionary: "If I didn't know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" The missionary says: "No, not if you didn't know." To which the Inuit replies: "Then why did you tell me?"
If God only condemns those who reject the gospel after they are made aware of it, then missionary preaching itself is the catalyst which moves unbelievers from a state of grace to a state of condemnation. In which case missionaries are responsible for far more souls being lost than saved. Wouldn't it be best to leave unbelievers alone, in their state of grace, in the first place?
From the Manifesto of the Mennonite Anti-Mission Association (MAMA) (look for our Facebook page, and "like" us).
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“My conclusion is that the church is a hostile and poisonous entity in the community. As far as I know, they don’t do any other kind of charity work in the neighborhood.”
Yikes. “Hostile and poisonous entity.” Are we Christians really like that?
There is a broad spectrum of personalities in both Christianity and atheism, but the single event in this story has been used generalize "we Christians" very negatively and use the good example of Elly the "casual atheist" to generalize all atheists as more kind and loving in practice than Christians. In my experience, the church does make a positive impact on the community. I also have atheist friends who, with the best of intentions, have tried to undermine my faith and thus "save me" from what they consider irrational nonsense. They assume I would be happier and better off if they could talk me out of being a Christian. In that regard they are just as insensitive as the "fire and brimstone" preacher in this story since they don't consider that if they did convince me to change, that I could be worse off rather than better off after losing my sense of identity, sense of community with other believers, etc.
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What an ideal teaching opportunity for a Godly mother and father of this 7 year old boy to explain Bible truths about Heaven and Hell. Yes, these are two eternal places created by God. One for those, who by faith, have accepted Jesus as their personal Saviour and are birthed into the everlasting family of God and are on the narrow way. These are people who have had their hearts and lives cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus and now have the Holy Spirit residing within them. They are now new creatures in Christ. Hell is for those who have rejected the blood atonement of Jesus and are on the broad way.
Hell is referred to 23 times in the New Testament, many references by Jesus. If the Bible refers to Hell, it is not mean to teach the truth about it. If this 7 year old refers to Hell, it is mean for the parents to not discuss it from a Biblical perspective.
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Dale, did you read the story?? This boy didn't have a "Godly mother and father time explain," that was a crucial factor in his predicament.
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Christian education is good to make the student obedient and well-educated.this is the best education to teach the core values and make them self-respectful.
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