By John Shores ~
My best friend is an Orthodox Christian. He recently sent me a link to this post by an Orthodox priest which I found to be intriguing. The author makes an interesting statement:
This caught my attention because I have never heard a Christian admit it. The remainder of the article touts "god's mercy" which, honestly, has the same foundation as "god's justice"; we are all guilty of some offense against god. While I find this foundation to be ludicrous, I was pleased that this article admitted the absurdity that has led many of us to leave the faith entirely.
As to the question of mercy, I find the concept (as it pertains to god) to be as effective a trap as the "justice" of hellfire and damnation. Either way, it places us in a position of subjugation to an entity who we, frankly, cannot have the slightest clue about as it fails to reveal itself to any of us.
That said, I would far rather have a discussion with someone like the author of this article than any other "Christian." He at least seems to want to do away with the condemnation that many of us suffered under. Perhaps the distance between people like him and agnostics like me is not so great.
The result of the distortions caused by faulty theologizing about God’s justice, is a God who is not worthy of worship. There are those who not only glibly consign sinners to hell, but also postulate that the righteous will rejoice in the torment of sinners because of their delight in the goodness of God’s justice. Those with normal human sensibilities are repulsed by such notions.
This caught my attention because I have never heard a Christian admit it. The remainder of the article touts "god's mercy" which, honestly, has the same foundation as "god's justice"; we are all guilty of some offense against god. While I find this foundation to be ludicrous, I was pleased that this article admitted the absurdity that has led many of us to leave the faith entirely.
As to the question of mercy, I find the concept (as it pertains to god) to be as effective a trap as the "justice" of hellfire and damnation. Either way, it places us in a position of subjugation to an entity who we, frankly, cannot have the slightest clue about as it fails to reveal itself to any of us.
That said, I would far rather have a discussion with someone like the author of this article than any other "Christian." He at least seems to want to do away with the condemnation that many of us suffered under. Perhaps the distance between people like him and agnostics like me is not so great.
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