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Brethren and Sistern, according to this report, we seem to have a problem. Christians are happy to believe in Heaven but not Hell:
I have some difficulty here. (apart from that idiot statement by the papist – of course you know Rome-Boy, it’s in the Bible!!!) If there is black there is white; if there is hot there is cold, if there is Heaven there is Hell. All are equally real.
I feel we need to press upon the Unsaved Trash the concept of the Pit of Brimstone, The Eternal Torments, The Desolation, The Screaming Agony The Despair, The Everlasting Remorse besetting each and every sinner as promised by Jesus.
I hope we will be able to impress upon the vile sinners who reach Landover, the absolute reality of these unspeakable and never-ending tortures to the soul and, by doing so, welcome them to the Merciful and Compassionate Bosom of The Lord of Hosts.
From the Chicago Sun-Times.
Belief strong, but not as formal. STUDY | Research finds Americans still believe in God, but not so much in the institutional sense as they once did
June 24, 2008
BY MIKE THOMAS Religion Reporter/mthomas@suntimes.com
By a huge margin, America remains one nation under God -- but not in the way it once was. That's according to the newest findings of a multipart survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The study found that people's beliefs have become more individualistic and less institutional.
Still, while lots of us have apparently fallen away from the more traditional aspects of various faiths, many continue to believe in heaven (74 percent) and hell (59 percent) as reward or punishment in the afterlife.
Not surprisingly, 15 percent fewer folks think they could be -- as Salieri so poetically puts it in the film "Amadeus" -- consigned to flames of woe.
The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center, says that's due in part to the way in which religions have softened their messages over the years to include more salvation and less damnation. In short, less fire and brimstone.
Reese also theorizes that denial probably plays a role as well.
"Put it this way; I think probably half of those people [in the survey] think God is so loving he wouldn't send people to hell," Reese says, "and the other half simply don't want to think about hell because it makes them uncomfortable."
Referring to the recent Pew findings, and Catholics in particular, Chicago Cardinal Francis George told USA Today that "People are trained to trust only their own spiritual experience."
"Religion," he said, "is about conversion, self-surrender as opposed to self-righteousness. That's hard in any culture but particularly our own."
Cabdriver Sylvanus Ugbaja, 53, of Chicago says the concept of heaven is especially attractive.
"I believe more in heaven," he says. "Because there is hope in heaven and there is no hope in hell."
Marketing writer Jennifer Moore, 40, of Fox Lake shares similar sentiments. In Moore's mind, heaven is somewhere "completely without worry or fear or doubt." As for hell, she's less certain.
"I'm not Catholic," she says, "but I would find it really hard to believe that God would just never forgive anybody."
Chicago resident and lapsed Catholic Patrick Deriso, 40, gives a hesitant "yes" when asked if he believes in heaven and hell. But he doesn't conceive of them as specific places.
"I don't think there's a reward," he says of heaven. "I think you come back and do it over and over again." He doesn't buy the idea of hell as somewhere do-badders burn for all eternity. "I think it's religious propaganda," he says. "Being raised a Catholic, I heard too much of it growing up." However, he adds, "nobody knows until they die."
Belief strong, but not as formal. STUDY | Research finds Americans still believe in God, but not so much in the institutional sense as they once did
June 24, 2008
BY MIKE THOMAS Religion Reporter/mthomas@suntimes.com
By a huge margin, America remains one nation under God -- but not in the way it once was. That's according to the newest findings of a multipart survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The study found that people's beliefs have become more individualistic and less institutional.
Still, while lots of us have apparently fallen away from the more traditional aspects of various faiths, many continue to believe in heaven (74 percent) and hell (59 percent) as reward or punishment in the afterlife.
Not surprisingly, 15 percent fewer folks think they could be -- as Salieri so poetically puts it in the film "Amadeus" -- consigned to flames of woe.
The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center, says that's due in part to the way in which religions have softened their messages over the years to include more salvation and less damnation. In short, less fire and brimstone.
Reese also theorizes that denial probably plays a role as well.
"Put it this way; I think probably half of those people [in the survey] think God is so loving he wouldn't send people to hell," Reese says, "and the other half simply don't want to think about hell because it makes them uncomfortable."
Referring to the recent Pew findings, and Catholics in particular, Chicago Cardinal Francis George told USA Today that "People are trained to trust only their own spiritual experience."
"Religion," he said, "is about conversion, self-surrender as opposed to self-righteousness. That's hard in any culture but particularly our own."
Cabdriver Sylvanus Ugbaja, 53, of Chicago says the concept of heaven is especially attractive.
"I believe more in heaven," he says. "Because there is hope in heaven and there is no hope in hell."
Marketing writer Jennifer Moore, 40, of Fox Lake shares similar sentiments. In Moore's mind, heaven is somewhere "completely without worry or fear or doubt." As for hell, she's less certain.
"I'm not Catholic," she says, "but I would find it really hard to believe that God would just never forgive anybody."
Chicago resident and lapsed Catholic Patrick Deriso, 40, gives a hesitant "yes" when asked if he believes in heaven and hell. But he doesn't conceive of them as specific places.
"I don't think there's a reward," he says of heaven. "I think you come back and do it over and over again." He doesn't buy the idea of hell as somewhere do-badders burn for all eternity. "I think it's religious propaganda," he says. "Being raised a Catholic, I heard too much of it growing up." However, he adds, "nobody knows until they die."
I feel we need to press upon the Unsaved Trash the concept of the Pit of Brimstone, The Eternal Torments, The Desolation, The Screaming Agony The Despair, The Everlasting Remorse besetting each and every sinner as promised by Jesus.
I hope we will be able to impress upon the vile sinners who reach Landover, the absolute reality of these unspeakable and never-ending tortures to the soul and, by doing so, welcome them to the Merciful and Compassionate Bosom of The Lord of Hosts.
I Hope they all go to hell and eat kitty litter with their Mothers.
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