What’s
So Appealing About Hell?
Rev. Paul Beckel
March 19, 2006
Injustice is a sixth
sense, and rouses all the others. Amelia
Barr
Judgment delayed is
judgment voided. The Talmud
The best way of avenging
thyself is not to become like the wrongdoer.
Marcus Aurelius
You have heard that it
was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not
resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek.... Matthew 5:
38-39
Love endures all
things. I Corinthians 13
With what measure ye
mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Matthew 7:12
Tolerance is a virtue,
but indifference is a vice. Dana
McLean Greeley
Injustice anywhere is a
threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King, Jr.
That the saints may
enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly, they are permitted
to see the punishment of the damned in hell.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Do not ask me whether
the torments of the wicked will endure forever. ...I have no empty curiosity
for the investigation of useless problems.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
OPENING
WORDS
What’s so appealing
about Hell? Carlton Pearson is the minister of a Pentecostal mega-church in
The story raises a
fascinating question. Assuming that the people in his congregation expected to
be saved, why was it so important for them that at least some people would go
to hell? It’s actually a pretty old question. On this day in Universalist
History -- March 19, 1652: Richard Coppin, a student at
SERMON
What’s so appealing
about hell?
From the “
From Samoa to
What sorts of images?
The Maya of Central America have hieroglyphics of heroes, gods, and goddesses
which date back to 50 years B.C.E. Their mythology includes gory images of
eternal punishment in Hunhau -- different circles of the underworld -- for
those who have eluded justice on earth. Thousands of inaccessible miles to the
west, the Caroline Islanders of Micronesia similar fear their lord of the
underworld -- Gora-Daileng, who eternally roasts and tortures souls for their
earthly wickedness. They dare not utter his name aloud lest he think he is
being summoned.
Jainism (an offshoot of
Buddhism), Japanese Shinto, and pagan European tales from before the time of
Christ all contain images of misery, heat, and torture by demons. Kanaloa is
the Hawaiian squid god of death who gives off a putrid smell that reflects the
odor of people’s sins.
Nordic and Icelandic
myths speak of a cold realm of icy suffering. This “Niflheim” is the ultimate
destination of everyone who hasn’t died in battle. In
Siberian lore speaks of
Mu Monto -- an afterworld where all live together. But those who have been
wicked are stripped and lashed while those who were poor in life enjoy great banquets
and fine wines.
A sect of early
christianity known as the Gnostics taught that any separation from god is hell, including life on earth.
Instead of fear or
suffering, another common image of the afterlife involves unending monotony.
Angolans have Kiamba, the Aztecs had Mictlan, and the Baobo people of the
Sometimes hell is
portrayed as a surreal dream -- bizarre, ambiguous, flowing.... And even if
it’s not a dream of torture, falling, or pursuit by demons, perhaps this is the
scariest consequence for the lives we’ve led: to spend eternity in an endless
attempt to psychologically integrate all of the pieces.
But is hell just an otherworldly dream -- or is it tangible
physical experience -- possibly even woven into the land of the living? The San
people of
Slavic legend speaks of
those who die prematurely, virgins and victims of accidents, all who are
jealous of the living, and who return to haunt those still having rich life
experiences. Their unhappy dead are said to become vampires... unless the
bodies are burned or impaled.
Vampires also haunted
ancient
In Greek myth Persephone
is kidnapped and forced to live in the underworld with King Hades for half of
every year. Only when she returns to earth does her mother Demeter, goddess of
the harvest, allow things to grow. Also in
Other traditions also
identify such moments of judgment: the Egyptian god Osiris weighing the heart
of the dead on a scale against the feather of truth; Jesus’s parable about
separating the sheep from the goats....
==
Many have struggled with
the idea that a loving God is also the judge who would condemn anyone to
eternal suffering. C.S. Lewis’s explanation is that God is not responsible for
our punishment; he is not vengeful. No, hell is simply evidence that we have
free will; hell is a choice made by
those who reject God. Lewis wrote about hell in The Great Divorce, a
reaction to William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell which
describes these two realms as temporary states, or simply matters of
perspective.
Many traditions propose
hell-like places or states which are temporary. Hindus, whose primary religious
allegory is that of a journey through multiple reincarnations, describe
chambers of punishment where souls burn off bad karma before proceeding to
their next life.
Even the Buddhist
tradition has its temporary way-stations on the journey of reincarnation.
Chinese Buddhist art depicts an underworld with the condemned confined to
flaming pools of serpents. Japanese Buddhist tradition includes similar imagery
following judgment by two decapitated heads. The Tibetan Buddhist “Book of the
Dead” refers not to a being who
judges, but an automatic process through which a soul damns itself for its
evil, with punishment consisting of having to face one’s own moral ugliness.
Judaism’s “gehinom” is
another temporary state of soul cleansing. The experience is unpleasant,
certainly, but rarely exceeds twelve months. So Jews officially mourn the dead
for no longer than eleven months. Many secular or liberal Jews, however, will
say that there is no afterlife, or that Judaism concentrates on the here and
now.
In Islam and
Zoroastrianism, hell is temporary not just for the souls who go there. Even
hell itself will come to an end at the last judgment. At that time, most
condemned souls will enter paradise, their metaphysical debt paid in full.
Those beyond hope of salvation will be obliterated.
But despite the
widespread stories of fire and brimstone, images of hell have been softening
over the past century or so. In his later years Billy Graham’s most vivid
description of hell was that of “an eternal search for God that is never
quenched.” Pope John Paul II was no advocate of hell per se, but simply
described the alternative to heaven as the separation from God.
Several small christian
groups share the view of Bishop Carlton Pearson, whom I mentioned in my opening
words. They preach universal salvation -- the notion that everyone will
eventually come to rest with God in heaven. They make essentially the same
argument that our UU predecessors made in the 1700s -- interpreting the bible
in an historical-critical manner, and referring to universalist teachings which
were prevalent for 300 years after Jesus’s death --until Christianity became the
official religion of the
The universalism which
became Unitarian Universalism has evolved. There were the early battles over
whether salvation was instantaneous (because sin has its own consequences here
on earth) or whether we all would have to endure the temporary cleansing thing.
The notion that
salvation is a result of Jesus’s suffering and atoning for our sins -- this doctrine was rejected in the 1800s.
Over time the emphasis shifted from Jesus’s death... to his life and teachings
as the source of salvation. Following the American civil war, the concept of
salvation as an afterlife gave way to an imperative to create the
Unitarian Universalists
eventually found any kind of doctrine or creed to be counterproductive (if not
impossible). So we may be a little too quick to scoff at those whose heritage
includes stories of supernatural demons or heroes. As we learn about these
wildly diverse images of hell, I think it’s important to recognize that they
include a wide range of current official religious teachings, ancient but
respected folklore, and outrageous stories that get carried forward more for
their outstanding vividness than for being literally believed.
For example, 700 years
ago, an Italian named Dante described multiple levels of hell. Even so, it
would be a mistake to call his vision “an Italian belief.” A few days ago the
Such un-nuanced
assumptions surely pave the way to places we don’t want to go.
==
As long as there have
been images of hell, there have been satires of hell. Aristophanes wrote The
Frogs -- describing a merry hell -- during the same era that Plato spoke of
hell’s punishment representing an ideal of justice. Since then the absurdity of
hellfire doctrines and the hypocrisy of those who preach them have been
lampooned in horror movies, music videos, carnival funhouses, cartoons, comic
books, graphic novels, campfire stories, album art, and biker culture. The
Onion recently ran a story on baptizing your cat, which apparently is an
important matter because kittens’ hearts, at birth, are filled with what
theologians call, “original mischief.”
Unitarian Rod Serling
utilized his creepy creations Night
gallery and The Twilight Zone to
tell stories implying that damnation is of our own making -- that nothing could
be worse than the horrors of our own imaginations.
In every medium taste is
set aside in favor of extreme grotesqueness. Unbounded efforts are made to
capture our attention -- whether to glorify or to reject conventional morality,
rebellious irreverence, arrogant fearlessness, and the thrill of flirting with
evil. The works of Dante and John Donne, Goethe and John Bunyan... these are
just a few of endless depictions of journeys through hell, deals with the
devil, the seductive lure of diabolical powers, and warnings against trying to
delve into forbidden realms of knowledge.
With all their
variation, it’s sometimes hard to tell which of these artifacts are intended as
gospel, and which as farce. Perhaps it’s just a matter of perspective. They all
contain sadness and gloating, the mockery of evil, and hints of frenzied witch
hunts to come.
==
Polls show that 60% of
Americans “believe” in “hell.” But why? Why do human cultures abound with
images of misery? Is it our need to feel special? Do we have a sense that if everyone is special then no one is special?
So many images contain
hierarchies -- different layers or circles of hell which get worse and worse
depending upon the nature of our transgressions. Is this an essential component
of justice? Here on earth we create similar categories for criminals, and for
both our real and imagined victimhood... seeking, perhaps in vain, for justice
in response to life’s inexplicable unfairness and mercy, temptation, bad luck,
and getting away with (whatever you last got away with).
We want to believe that
our actions and our beliefs truly matter. Some traditions place more emphasis
upon proper belief than humane behavior, but the bulk of hell imagery implies
that it’s behavior that counts. And
perhaps it’s not surprising that these concepts would endure when a) we observe
people doing evil, and b) we’re affected personally by other people’s vile
behavior. I mean -- doesn’t everyone know someone who ought to go to hell?
And if we take hell
seriously, and we know that we ourselves might end up there, we want to know
what we can do about it. In 17th century
Many of the traditions
I’ve mentioned involve such mediators who might get us off the hook. Advocates
who have gone to hell to rescue loved ones. The Virgin Mary is often called
upon to play this intercessory role. In the Koran, Muhammad visited hell, and
there are multiple versions of Jesus descending to intervene.
==
Is belief in hell a
function of sadism, or is it a sincere quest for justice? Is belief in hell a
result of insanity or boredom? In 1662, Isobel Gowdie, an apparently sane and
intelligent Scottish farm wife voluntarily came to the local authorities with
stories of her frequent sexual encounters with the devil. We can only guess
what her life may have been like after her “confessions.” But history provides
no clues as to her motivation. John Bunyan’s hell-themed novel The Pilgrim’s
Progress, written in
So, do images of hell
persist as a form of hope that justice exists and that the good will win out in
the end? Do these images provide a sense of power, retribution, or consolation
to those who are overwhelmed by fear or violence or unfairness -- or those
overwhelmed by their own perception of victimhood? Could hell give our earthly
suffering meaning?
Finally: Is hell a
fantasy for the meek and powerless, helping them to endure in hopes of a later
reward? Or is hell the fantasy of the powerful, as described by Aristotle 300
years before Christ? He wrote: "It has been handed down in mythical form
from earliest times to posterity, that there are gods, and that the divine compasses
all nature. All beside this has been added, after the mythical style, for the
purpose of persuading the multitude, and for the interests of the laws, and the
advantage of the state."
This week I viewed the
first in the series of Left Behind movies which tell of the Rapture and
the rise of the Antichrist. I’m eager to share with you some thoughts about the
film. But lest this sermon last for an eternity, I must pause now. This subject
raises many more interesting questions about people’s motivation to envision
hell and our potential to understand one another. Next week’s sermon has
already been advertised as “Mr. & Ms Potato God,” so I’ll say more about Left
Behind and the fantasies of Armageddon on the first Sunday in April.