Life after Death

What I really want to know is

when I die

where do I go?

how do I get there?

what do I do when I get there?

Literally, not philosophically.

I’m interested in Jack Spong’s views on religion and heaven and hell, especially in regards to my last blog.

Two of his reforms are:

11. The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior.

12. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one's being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection of discrimination.

—Notes from a Dr. Doug Fabrizio Podcast on KUER January 17, 2017  - “Biblical Literalism” John Shelby "Jack" Spong. Spong is a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church; a convinced and committed Christian.

Religion is an evolving thing. The Christian church has trafficked in guilt for so long because that is the way you control behavior. Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving. If you make people guilty enough you can control them forever. I don’t know if guilt ever does anything good for people’s humanity. Primary message that comes out of church is that I am guilty. We’re always denigrating our humanity. I don’t believe we’re fallen. I believe we’re incomplete. I believe that the task of the Christian church is to help incomplete people become complete people; not to help guilty people get over their guilt by being punished. Life is holy; all life is holy; life is loved; all life is loved; and life is called to be all that it is capable of being. That’s not what we hear.

Dr. Fabrizio asked about the apocalypse.

The only place it is mentioned is in Matthew Chapter 25.

The questions are neither religious nor political. They don’t ask if you go to church; have been baptized, etc., they only ask, “Have you been able to see the Face of God in the faces of the least of these, my brothers and sisters?”

When you saw people hungry did you realize that to give them food was to give God food?

When you saw them thirsty, did you realize that to give them water was to give God water?

Because the only way you can serve God is to serve your fellow human beings.

That’s the whole standard of judgement we have lost.

Instead (and here’s the part that relates to my last blog), we have developed a heaven and hell: Heaven a place where God rewards good people and hell where God punishes bad people.

I don’t think those make any sense at all.

A modern parent would not raise his or her child on the basis if you’re a good boy, you’ll get a reward; if you’re a bad girl you’ll get a punishment. Because we know that’s not a proper way to raise children. That only fills them with guilt and inadequacy. Yet the Christian church still operates on that principle that good people are going to receive the reward and bad people are going to receive the punishment. I think we’ve gotten God and Santa Claus confused. Santa Claus is the one who’s making a list and checking it twice and is going to find out who’s naughty and nice. And the purpose of that list for Santa Claus is to give good presents to good children and coals or switches or whatever is negative to bad children. That’s just really immature. We’ve got to get beyond that kind of understanding of God. I see God as the source of life calling me to live; I see God as the source of life freeing me to love; I see God as the ground of being encouraging me to be all that I can be. The mission of the church is to build a world where everybody in that world has a better opportunity to live fully; love wastefully and be all that they are capable of being. That’s what our business is.

But you don’t hear that when you attend most of our churches on Sunday Morning.

Some of John Shelby Spong’s published quotes:

*All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. And that's where it turns demonic. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.

*I want the traditional family upheld, but I don't want it upheld to the detriment of other people.

*It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different.

*Christianity is not about the divine becoming human so much as it is about the human becoming divine. That is a paradigm shift of the first order.

*When I grew up in the South, I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. I was taught that women were by nature inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it.

*When I'm asked to define God, I'm almost wordless.

*I believe that is what the God experience does for us. It calls us beyond our limits into the fullness of life - into a capacity to love people we are not taught to love - and into an ability to be who we are.

*The Bible tells me that every life is holy; the Bible tells me that every life is loved; the Bible tells me that every life is called to be all that it can be.

*You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.

*The way you become divine is to become wholly human.

*If you begin to give people hope that there is a brighter future, there is a new tomorrow, then the people who were yesterday's terrorists become tomorrow's elected officials and they're part of the system.

*My basis of morality is this: does this action enhance life, or does it denigrate life? Does it build up or does it tear down?

When I first started thinking about my Mormon Heaven,

I could remember a podcast that I had heard that intrigued me

because of the guy's beliefs but I could not think of his name.

I thought I had taken notes but how do you find them?

I have the recent podcasts on my i-Pad so I looked there first.

I could not believe "Biblical Literalism" showed up. Has it been that recent?

At least I had his name, so I looked up John Spong.

My notes were in September 2016. I guess this was a repeat on January 17, 2017.

A coincidence? I would have never found him.

I've written several times about remembering as a child

thinking of Daddy up in heaven with green meadows and pretty flowers

while we were down here wallowing in the mud.