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Judge not, lest ye be judged
By Donna Sprague
Tue Feb 12, 2008, 04:35 PM EST
The plain white business envelope was tucked into the large manila envelope enclosed with this week's edition of the Free Press. I get any snail mail sent to the office this way.
Postmarked Brockton, there was no return address. At the end of all my columns there is my email address, so perhaps the letter sender has no computer. But then, what was in the envelope could not have come in email.
At first, it appeared to be a sort of brochure for a vacation on some volcanic island, as there were flames on the pages. Upon closer inspection I saw that it was a Christian tract upon which the sender had taken the time to print out and affix two strips of paper which read:
“Donna Spragues first 6 days in hell.”
Say what?
I've seen many such religious materials and they're usually a poorly written attempt at instilling fear in the recipient. This one was no different.
Some religions always use some amount of fear to get more believers into their organizations. Fear of something they believe is a certainty in the future, based upon their interpretation of, in this case, the Bible. Fear of something that ONLY THEY have the solution for, by the way.
You've got wrinkles? Well, we have the anti wrinkle cream. You've got saggy abs? We have just the ab machine for you! You've got a fear of death? We've got hell! Oops!
This tract promised that I would be going to hell because I'd made a decision to go to hell by my rejection of Jesus.
Did I reject Jesus?
Actually, having had a near death experience at four, I don't fear death at all. There were no fork-tailed horned creatures and no firery pits where I went. It was quite pleasant.
The tract informed me that this description of hell comes straight from the Bible. Since I have read the Bible three times, I have a slightly different interpretation, if I may.
Back in ancient times, all that the common folk had which could be used as tools of manipulation by the governments and religions, were experiences in their own limited lives. Everyone knew that being burned would hurt terribly. The creators of the Bible, wanting to grow the ranks of the religion used the common imagery of fire, a scary pit of flames, to put into the mind of the masses.
If the Bible were being written today, I imagine the scribes might use the image of dying and spending eternity at a rap festival, or at a political convention, or at the very worst, a Victoria's Secret Valentine fashion show!
The point being of course, that we are really silly to judge others based on what our fantasies of their lives are. We hardly know what our friends and relatives have in their hearts, let alone a total stranger.
The person who sent the tract, although a frightened soul who evidently needs the safety of anonymity, was actually very sweet in trying to help me, who he or she perceives as a rejector of Jesus, to avoid the trip to hell.
A major flaw in his or her reasoning is that, since I was not programmed as a child to fear a loving God, hell doesn't exist for me. I simply do not believe in hell. Or the Devil.
I don't say that if someone else chooses to believe in hell that they won't go there, I do not presume to think that I know what God has planned for anyone other than me.
I want to thank the sender of the tract for their intended kindness, and say that he or she should feel absolutely free to go to hell for six or as many days as is the usual time to spend there, if that is his or her choice.
It's all about free will, yes?
Email Sprague at donna@povertyflats.co
