Tag: Christianity

Art, family

The Last Supper Table and Chairs

Andi

A local museum had a room full of art pieces donated by local citizens. Some work they’d done themselves and some that had been passed down in their families. This table and chairs drew my attention and it fascinated me.

It depicts the Last supper in the middle of the table, and there are twelve chairs each depicting a different disciple. I did not notice at the time, but the chair for Judas is carved differently from all the rest as he was the one who betrayed Jesus. It is of course carved and it was quite large. This quick summary laid there with the piece shared the artists history.

I find it incredibly intriguing how various religions have effected the cultures in which they are prominent. Art is one of the plainest places to see these effects, as religious artwork is prolific.

Something else I find interesting about this artwork in particular is the rarity of it. Not because tables are rare or because this artist took 12 years to carve it, but because of the unique idea of it. Who thinks of the Last Supper and thinks, I can make that into a table and chairs. It’s so odd, but delightful.

I enjoyed this part of the museum because of the unique and fascinating nature of it. It was neat to see all these different pieces by or from local residents. But this table, by far, stood out the most.

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Damnation

Andi

This one is a doozy, so before I get started on it, I want everyone to take a deep breath and stay calm. I say that because people are very touchy about their faith, and tend to become reactionary when you talk about it. I’m not out to anger anyone.

However, I am out to talk about hell. The place of damnation in most Judaic and Christian religions. This is a piece of faith I kind of ignored because I just didn’t want to think about it. It made me uncomfortable. But recently pieces on hell kept coming across my various news feeds and it seemed time to just delve into it.

Growing up, I was taught that hell is a place of eternal damnation, continual torment, fire, anguish, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. We are all sinners, and sin must be punished, so we are all destined for this awful place. That Jesus was the only way to escape this torment. If you were to ask for his forgiveness and recieve his mercy, he would wash all your sins away, and spare you eternal punishment. Most Christians believe some variation of this narrative, so to challenge that a part of it was incorrect would be to challenge the entire foundation of their faith. So I understand anyone who may be uneasy or wary of the idea. I certainly was.

There were two things that made me uncomfortable with this idea of eternal torment for non believers.

The first was the question about people who never heard of God during their time on earth. This could be as result of being remote and secluded from civilization, or infant death, or mental disabilities. What if a child died before they were able to understand salvation? Now, for the people I was around, most of them made caveats for the mentally disabled and babies, but used the remote civilizations as a rallying cry for further missions. We have to take the gospel to them or they will go to hell. They received no caveats. This just did not sit well with me. I could not fathom a loving God never giving them a chance of redemption.

Second was how hell has been used to manipulate and control people by terrifying them. You must do as we tell you, or you aren’t truly saved and probably going to hell. People didn’t come to God or to church because God is loving and supportive, a very present help in trouble. They came to God and Church out of absolute fear of burning consciously forever in a lake of fire.

One piece I read put forth that hell was not taught by Jesus, or the ancient Jews, it was an idea that crept into Judaism from the Greeks during the span between the Old and New testaments. This idea piqued my interest.

So I looked it up. Every time hell is mentioned in the Old Testament and what was the Hebrew word that was used. Turns out, the English words vary depending on the translation you are using, but the Hebrews words do not vary. So the same Hebrew word would sometimes be translated to English as “Hell”, other times as “death” or “the pit”.

The most common word is Sheol. This word is used in the Old Testament frequently. According to ancient Judaism, Sheol is the place of the dead. Not a place of punishment or of reward, just a place you went after you died. This is why it is sometimes translated as “the grave” or just as “death”. When I was young I was told Sheol was synonymous with Hell and the words could be used interchangeably. I remember this being associated with the Proverbs passage about the seductive woman who tempts a young man and it being said her footsteps have taken hold in Sheol. This was always taught metaphorically, usually to shame young kids into abstinence. This woman was promiscuous and led to hell, the same fate is in store for teens who have lots of unmarried sex.

But what if this isn’t metaphorical? What if we take this literally? If Sheol is the place of the dead and she was on her way there could that mean this woman was dying? It’s made clear, she tempts lots of young men. Hygeiene was not much back then, STIs had to exist, and antibiotics did not. Even just a virus would be easy to transmit. It’s in Proverbs 5:5 that says “Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;” And another passage about temptresses in Proverbs 7:27 says “Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.” Could this verse mean literally, this woman will kill you? Do you see how that changed the entire meaning of the passage? It still serves as a warning to not succumb to temptation, but instead of eternal damnation as the outcome, death is the outcome.

Next word I came across was Abaddon. This one is a little more tricky. It appears in both testaments, and means destruction, but in the New Testament it is personified as an Angel. So is Abaddon a place of destruction or is it the Angel of Death? I found lots of conflicting info on this. Some believe Abaddon is actually sent by God to hand out his punishment before his return in Revelation. In the verses I found it in the Old Testament it was coupled with Sheol. So it came as death and destructin.

But then I moved on to the New Testament. Not just needing to know what my English translations said, but what the Greek said. So again I looked up the word hell in the New Testament and which word in the orginal language was used. Most references of hell, or specifically, the lake of fire come from Revelations. Entire book series have been dedicated to explaining the end times, so I’m not going to. I am going to let you know what I can dissect from language though.

The first word I came across was Gehennna. I never heard this word growing up, I first heard it in an anime, as an adult. That is because in the KJV, the version I was raised solely reading, it is translated to hell every time. In this case, it may be more appropriate than with Sheol. Gehenna references an actual place. A valley, where people performed child sacrifices. The land was declared cursed and became synonymous with wickedness, understandably. It became the place where the evil were sent, and over time became known as the land of the wicked. Its is simple to see the connection between it and the idea of hell. Only the evil are sent there, cast out and separated from good.

Another word used in the New Testament is Hades. This word is used in the same manner Sheol is used in the Old Testament. This, actually makes a lot of sense to me. Hades is the god of the underworld, and the land of Hades is were the dead are. It’s a station the dead pass through. The idea of a neutral place all the dead go to, aligns with Sheol and even the Greeks idea of Hades’ realm. Now wouldn’t this confirm the piece I read about Greek culture seeping into Judaism? Maybe. But I could also see it as a simple borrow of their language as well. Although in English it may have been changed to hell, I dont think the ancients meant it as a place of punishment.

Then there is the word Tartarus used only once in 2 Peter 2:4. In KJV this verse says, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” In the Complete Jewish Bible, this verse reads as “For God did not spare the angels who sinned; on the contrary, he put them in gloomy dungeons lower than Sh’ol to held for judgement.” And in the Youngs Literal Translation it reads, “For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast [them] down to Tartarus, did deliver [them] to judgment, having been reserved,” It is usually traslated as hell, like in the KJV though sometimes left as tartarus, as in the YLT. This I do find interesting as Tartarus is the pit Zues trapped the titans in after he defeated them. Where the realm of Hades was the land of the dead, Tartarus was a place deeper, a place only the most wicked were sent to be imprisoned. Even though, this seems to borrow from Greek mythology, it also aligns with the idea that hell is a place reserved only for the most Evil, as with Gehenna, and is a seperate place than Sheol or Hades.

So simply based on the language used in these words we can start to paint a picture. Sheol/Hades is a land where the dead are, neither in happiness or anguish, waiting to be transferred to heaven or hell. And Gehenna/Tartarus is a sereate place reserved only for evil beings.

This brings us to two questions. First being, aren’t believers taken directly from their earthy bodies to heaven when they die? The concept of a realm of the dead kind of contradicts that. And second, is hell then eternal?

For the first, let’s look at the verse so often quoted at funerals and at greiving family members. 2 Corinthians 5:8 “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” KJV It is often summarized with a rub on your shoulder as, “you know as the Bible says, absent from the body, present with the Lord.” To try and comfort you about the deceased relative. But if Sheol exists, we are not imemedietly present in heaven the moment we are absent from our earthly forms. The passage this comes from talks about the eternal bodies we will have and how burdensome our earth bound bodies are, so this connection is not hard to make. However, this passage doesn’t ever say were immediately present with the Lord.

Conversely, I think many of even common Christian’s beliefs support the reality of Sheol. In the end times there will be a resurrection and the dead will rise at the trumpet sound. Its pepperd throughout the NT this resurrection of the dead. John 6:40 reads “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” KJV (Notice that little prepositional phrase “at the last day”?) 1 Corinthians 15 is where we get the trumpet sounding from. Verse 52 says, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” KJV the resurrection is taught, and sung about endlessly. But if all the dead are already with God why are they being resurrected? I’ve heard this explained as their spirits are with God but their bodies aren’t and that’s what raises at the trumpet sound. Although I’m not sure people want their old bodies in heaven and if we are given new perfect bodies, we don’t need the ones we’re riding in now.

Now for the eternal question. Nowhere else in all of the Bible is the Lake of Fire, often described as hell, mentioned outside of Revelation. So much of this book is confusing and complicated. Chapter 20 speaks quite bit about this Lake of Fire. Starting in verse 10, “and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” And then in verse 14, “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” ESV Before this death and Hades give up all the dead and they are judged according to the book (the Lamb’s Book of Life) and then those not found within were also cast into the Lake. This should undoubtedly settle eternal hell right? It does say the devil, the beast and the false prophet are tormented forever and ever, but does not say that about the others. This tiny phrase “their part” in Rev 21:18 leads some to believe that for even the worst of us, the Lake of Fire is temporary “But as for the cowards and unbelieving and abominable [who are devoid of character and personal integrity and practice or tolerate immorality], and murderers, and sorcerers [with intoxicating drugs], and idolaters and occultists [who practice and teach false religions], and all the liars [who knowingly deceive and twist truth], THEIR PART will be in the lake that blazes with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” AMP Even others draw from the previous chapter that the saints were resurrected before this, and so the dead rising in Revelation 20 would be the non believers who are then judged and punished for their deeds according to the books. “And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades (the realm of the dead) surrendered the dead who were in them; and they were judged and sentenced, every one according to their deeds.” Revelation 20:13 AMP So does this mean only the worst could not be reconciled and had to be sentenced to the Lake of Fire? Several other verses refer to those in torment and state they still refused to repent. Which gives the idea that they had the opportunity to do so.

None of us have been dead, and the end times have not come yet, so all of this is ultimately unknown. But from what we know of God, and what we can learn from the Bible, we can get a pretty solid idea. When we die we kind of hang out in suspension until the ressurection at the end of time, at which point we are judged. The righteous are spared punishment, the other’s sentences are handed down, and some may be punished in the lake of fire, but no one is denied repentance. So according Revelation the lake of fire is real, but I believe it is not a permanent punishment. Only Satan, the beast, and false prophet are tormented forever.

Feel free to share you knowledge and thoughts on this, but again I demand kindness and tact.

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Rats in the Building

Andi

I watched Seth Meyers new Netlfix comedy special Lobby Baby today. I do recommend. It was funny, and it did make me laugh. Maybe in a way only another parent could do. I liked that they gave people a skip politics button for those of us so burned out by the constant barrage of political news stories every single day. Even though I personally did not use the skip politics button.

But then he made a joke that wasn’t actually that funny. Not that he was being offensive or I was hurt, but because he was making light of an actual incredibly serious topic. Which I get, is his job for the most part, and the reason I didn’t skip the politics section. He makes light of some serious topics and sometimes makes them more digestible. But this was so close to home, it made me pause for a second.

He was talking about pedophiles, and then segued into talking about the Catholic colleges he’s done shows for. You see the connection there?

But it was the next analogy that really dug in. I’m paraphrasing this but He said,

if you found out your favorite restaurant had a rat problem you’d say, I really like you, but I’m not coming back until you get rid of the rats. But when you came back a few months later and asked if they’d taken care of the rats they said, oh yeah! We found 1,000 rats in the dining room, so we rounded them all up and moved them…to the kitchen.

And then he said no more. But the point was so clear and so direct, because this is literally what churches do. And he may have been speaking specifically about the public issue within the Catholic church, but it’s not only the Catholic church with this solution.

I’ll give you a real scenario. Pastor is accused by several girls and women of harrasment and assault, church denies it, women persist, pastor claims he’s being attacked by Satan, eventually resigns only to be moved to a different church in a different state. This has happened and is still happening.

This is a huge problem, but you probably don’t hear about it because churches are really good about keeping it under the radar and convincing congregations that anything they hear are lies from the Devil.

He said, and I will say, its not the members of the faith (usually) who are responsible for this. As I said, when enough raucous is raised the pastor is fired or resigns but then is just moved elsewhere. It’s the leadership of the faith, the denomination heads, the elders of the churches, that need to deal with this.

Seth’s rat analogy could not be more perfect and well laid out. I went from haha he made a joke about his kids toy to oh damn he’s dropping some truth bombs. Because he is right. There are rats in the Christian churches of many denominations, and they need to be dealt with. Not just moved out of your sight, but removed from the building.

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Mister Rogers

Andi

So many adults grew up with Mister Rogers gently singing to them and reminding them they were perfect just the way they were. I was a kid in the 90s, so I got all the reruns, but he was still prominent even then. However, he has impacted me more as an adult than he did when I was a child. With the new film coming out this month, I think talking about him is appropriate.

Fred Roger’s was a musician, an artist, and an ordained minister. His ordination was to minister to children through the medium of television. He apparently was witty and slightly snarky as well if you listen to his family and work mates. He was creative and driven, and worked hard to make his vision come to life. The documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” contains many of these first hand accounts of his gentle character and clever humor.

Mister Rogers never wore a collar or said he was a minister in his show, but his faith drove what he did. He very firmly believed that God made you just the way you are. You didn’t need to change anything. You are worthy of love, because God loves you, and as a follower of God, it was his duty to love you. He believed children were very bright and able to grasp even complex concepts. That they have very strong emotions and should be able to not only express them but know how to process them. Talk about them. Understand them. Your strong emotions aren’t flaws to be subdued, but God made parts of you. So a homosexual was perfect and worthy of love. A child with a disability was perfect and worthy of love. A person of color was perfect and worthy of love. A person of a different faith than his perfect and worthy of love. He displayed this on his show and in his life in the way he treated other people. Always with respect and always with kindness.

He is one of the only people of faith I look up to and desire to imitate. The kind of faith he had is what the world needs. It doesn’t need the anger. It doesn’t need the hate. It needs the powerful love. And a person brave enough to show it.

He is also a model of good parenting in my eyes. Kids need to know their emotions aren’t bad, but they need to know what to do with those emotions. They need to know they are special, the way they are. As parents, we need to be teaching our kids how to process their feelings in a healthy manner. Children should also be given the comfort of knowing they have love for who they are.

It is beyond fathom for me to imagine any person on earth that disliked Fred Rogers, but they existed. He got questioned about his own sexuality because he was soft and talked about his feelings. People said he was evil because he told kids they were special without having to work for it. He was blamed for entitled children. Rumors started that he wasn’t actually a kind gentle man, he was a hardened Marine who was covered in tattoos and killed lots of people. None of these were true, but I find it interesting the worst rumor they could come up with was tattoos and military service. There were enough people that hated him that there were protesters outside his funeral. People said he was going to hell, not because he was gay because he wasn’t, but because he tolerated gays. He told them he liked them, and God loved them, and apparently that is abominable. That’s the kind of man this was. He was hated for loving people.

This shows me two things: that someone is always going to dislike you and how to respond to those that do. Even someone as magnificent and unproblematic as Mister Rogers had people calling him evil. The kinds of people pointing fingers at you may be different, but there will be someone who doesn’t like you. But despite knowing some mocked him or hated him, Mister Roger’s never stopped treating each person he met with kindness. It had to get discouraging at times, and his family has said there were times he’d get upset, but no matter what he’d process the emotion, and step out to the world with a smile and a hug.

He is an example to us of what faith should look like, how to teach children, and how to face with world with grace.

Additions:

I think Tom Hanks is probably the only person, on earth, that could portray Fred Rogers.

I’m sure some people wonder why I love Mister Rogers so much, but I don’t care for Daniel Tiger. Despite the fact the characters are named after Rogers neighborhood friends and his own tiger puppet. I am aware. But the trouble is Daniel Tiger is trying to be Mister Rogers. They are attempting to recreate the magic for a new generation, but they just can’t. No one can. And Mister Rogers Neighborhood doesn’t need to be updated in my opinion. His voice is captivating and his singing is charming. My overly active kids enjoy the original show and pay attention to it as much as any of their other shows. Daniel Tiger is certainly not the worst show, it has some good parts, but it is also lacking in some as well. Perhaps I’m just being biased as well.

family, My Story

Recent Relationship with Faith

Andi

Before, I told you about the recent relationship I’ve had with my parents. I’ve told you about my relationship with friends. This time, I’m going to discuss my relationship with faith.

Growing up in such a strict religious environment meant I was introduced to faith and Christianity from birth. I was carried to church at less than a month old. There wasn’t a time in which we weren’t in the church or around other members, but it was also limited. I was only exposed to one specific denomination of Christian faith and absolutely no exposure to other world religions. All I needed to know about them was that they were wrong. My only glimpse into other faiths was on trips with my grandparents when they would take me to whichever church they could find because my parents insisted we go to church.

When I finally left the church I’d been raised in, their doctrines still followed me, like a looming rain cloud rumbling over my shoulder. I still had to be at a church somewhere, and it had to be a Baptist church. I had severe aversions to skirts and dresses for a time. I still owned some, but never wore them. When I did start wearing skirts again, I couldn’t wear denim. No matter what, my outfit had to be “not church approved” in some way. Even though I’d left, the guilt and shame still hung over me.

I Googled Baptist and Bible churches and made a list of the ones that looked most interesting. Then I visited them. After each visit I’d write a summary of what I thought of the service and congregation. I finally found one I liked. It was a Baptist church, but very different from the one I’d been raised in. If you do not know, there are multiple Baptist denominations, and while they have many similarities, they are not all the same. My parents kept promising they’d come visit with me one Sunday, but that would require them to miss their church, and I knew they wouldn’t do that. And they never did.

I was very faithful, attending every service and many events. This was one of those leftover traits from growing up. That went on until I had my oldest kid. I would only go if my husbad went with me, and having a baby is exhausting, so we didn’t go as much and only ever to the main worship service.

I started to wonder about other groups and religions. What differentiates the various Christian denominations? What was it that classified them all as Christian but still kept them separated? What about other world religions all together? Why did someone believe in a different entity besides God? What about those who do believe in God but aren’t Christian? I started to wonder.

This was the breakdown of my faith. Why did I believe in this one God and not a different one? What about these doctirines I disagree with? Was that really what the Bible taught? And if it is, can I still follow a faith that teaches it? I stripped away all of the previous knowledge I had about religion and set it aside. I had to start from scratch if I was going to get anywhere.

I got a notebook, a couple different translations of the Bible, and a Greek, a Hebrew and an English dictionary. It was also very helpful to have a couple friends I could call on with questions who had degrees in Biblical history. Understanding the language it was written in, and the culture and time period it takes place in are both important for studying its teachings.

There was a lot of writing. I wrote down the verse in all the translations, and the definitions of the words from the original language and in English. Like I said, a lot of writing. By breaking down everything into digestable pieces I started to rebuild what I believed. I developed a strong personal faith. It has no bearing on other people or what they believe, but it guides my actions and behaviors.

As time went on, I lost interest in attending church at all. I know there are other people out there that believe similarly to mysef, but are there enough in one location to form a church? And in any group of humans, conflict will arise. I did not enjoy the petty drama from the church I’d left, I don’t want to get in the middle of any of that ever again. And being from a church that demanded unwaivering loyalty and guilted you if you weren’t involved in everything, I’m a bit apprehensive of the commitment. And then on top of my own uncertainties, my husband has his own thoughts as well. So, to find a church that both I, and my husband, are comfortable in and want our kids around, is a fairly daunting task. At first it was my husband who wasn’t keen on church. Then it was me. I’m a little more neutral on it now, but he’s back to not wanting to go anywhere. I’m not pushing it.

I also don’t refer to myself as Christian anymore. I know it’s just a broad label, but its also how people define you. As of right now, most people associate anger and hate with American Christians, and I don’t want myself in that classification. I believe in God, but I don’t follow Amercan Christianity. I’m certain there are Christian Americans who don’t follow the path Christianity has taken, in fact I think there are many, but the leaders and public figures of the faith are presenting an image I can’t align with. And if that’s what the world sees as Christianity, I can’t label myself with them.

This isn’t the end. There are few things I’m confident in, but I still study and I’m constantly learning. I’m right now delving into the concepts and beliefs on Hell and Biblical discipline. I seem to study best with a pen and paper, and the lots of writing. It’s been easiest for me in the hashing out of what I do and do not believe.

If there is anything I urge everyone to do, it’s to study and learn for yourself. Don’t rely on someone else’s knowledge to form your beliefs. You have to do that for yourself.

My journey is far from over, but I keep going and never stop learning.