April 23 Update

Greetings Friends!

Well, after a three-week bout with either a very bad cold or the flu I have that feeling of major gratitude for feeling healthy and motivated once again.  This is just a short update to say I'm back (I was also in my home state of Oregon for a couple weeks with limited internet access) and ready to go!  One thing that I am going to do is visit the Universalist National Memorial Church in Washington D.C. tomorrow.  I will give an update of the service and my impressions sometime tomorrow evening most likely. 

Next, I wanted to just make some comments on our attitudes and how we should strive to love others.  I have said that I love a good debate, and I do.  But sometimes these things just turn nasty and accomplish nothing.  Sometimes the comments I see by Christian Universalists actually resemble those of Fundamentalists in the sense of:  "we have the truth and you don't" as we then proceed to hammer people with why Christian Universalism is true.  Now there is surely mixed motivation behind this.  We want to be right.  Everybody does.  But if people looking in on these debates see things get mean-spirited or a lack of forgiveness and grace on our parts then they are likely just to chalk the truly good news up as "religion" and may tune out this wonderful truth:  God is not a monster who will torture all who have not done, said, or believe certain things about him forever without mercy; rather, God is love and the Savior of the entire world and he wants the best for us!    

What wonderful news that is!  I just hope we maintain a spirit of understanding when dealing with all people, even those fundamentalists who may really irritate us.  The majority of such folks are likely not going to change their minds - they are utterly convinced that they are right, they have the monopoly on the truth, and we (as well as most of the rest of the human race, all God's children) are heretical and dangerous, deceiving people into spending eternity in hell with no hope of escape.  So, they have a terrible, warped view of God - I have said before that I believe it to be "satanic," in that only the most evil being imaginable would do something like that to his own creatures.  And, there is the old saying that people tend to resemble the gods they serve.  It's surprising how accurate that statement turns out to be oftentimes.  We do not want to resemble that God by being unmerciful and downright mean.

The point of this is that in many cases we need to strive not to defeat this warped view of God by behaving as the fundamentalists do, but by actively striving to resemble the God that we serve, seen most perfectly in the life of Christ, healing people and helping people.  We can do this not with the goal of getting them "saved" or to coerce a "sinner's prayer" out of them or any other kind of ulterior motive, but out of love. 

It is true the fundamentalists are back on the attack.  They have been put on the defensive by a wonderful book such as Rob Bell's Love Wins.  We see brainwashed religious leaders such as John Piper effectively excommunicating Rob Bell and consigning him to the realm of apostates.  Piper represents many people with hardened hearts to the true good news.  That true good news is not Piper's bad news which is:  "accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior or burn in hell for all of eternity," but that all people will receive the mercy of God, who loves each person he has created and wants us to grow in this love by practicing this love to our fellow creatures!   So we don't necessarily have to sit back and let the fundamentalists beat us up, but let us not be unnecessarily argumentative and instead go out and DO acts of kindness and love.  Think of the hours we might be spending online (I include myself here) debating with fundamentalists.  Couldn't we take a few of those hours and go perform some acts of service to needy people?     

You see, the battle has already been won.  We don't have to convert the world to save them from the pit of an eternal hell.  God is going to save all people ultimately.  But it is wonderful to see people released from this view of God as a monster to be feared.  Whether they admit it or not, people with this view of God as a being who created an eternal hell especially for sinful people to torment them - a God who is waiting for them to screw up and then to punish them instead of welcoming them with open arms - will generally spend an awful lot of time trying to make sure they are in the clear with him and it is awfully hard to genuinely love such a being or have a relationship to him like a brother or Father.

For those of us who have come to believe the truly news that God loves all people and not just the elect or chosen few it causes us to look at all people differently and not put us a spiritual cut above the "lost" or "sinners."  Remember who Jesus spent the time with was sinners and that he generally lambasted religious fundamentalists more than anyone else.  But this didn't keep him from healing, serving and loving his children.  May we strive to do the same to people who need our help! 

Thanks everyone, and I will have more information on upcoming meetings soon.  There was a mention of this in the latest newsletter available at http://www.christianuniversalist.org  and I will keep you posted! 

Happy Easter!

David