I had a conversation with someone here on Facebook last night and this morning, and its conclusion left me very sad. It's hard to express the way I'm feeling right now.
The conversation was over the existence of hell and its nature, having begun as a comment on a post which had been shared by a friend which declared that hell couldn't exist because a God who is love wouldn't torture people. I had responded to the effect that Torment (not being comfortable with the word "Hell" as this is more of a medieval concept and not a first century New Testament Greek concept) is not about God tormenting or torturing souls, but about those souls who refuse to come to Him finding themselves in the dark, lost and alone as a natural consequence of refusing to accept the God who is light, love, and completely omnipresent. If you shut your eyes and stop up your ears to what's surrounding you, of course you're going to be alone, blind, deaf, and suffering with your own internal demons.
The person who responded, who had, unknown to me until later, suffered a tragic loss repeatedly accused both me and my theology of being horrible and monstrous, and try as I might to clarify, insisted that I was teaching a God who tortures people, even though I was not nor would I. When the conversation ended this morning, I felt empty, misunderstood, and just very sad that this person had already made up their mind about both me and what I believe before we even began to discourse because I defended the existence of a state of Torment, regardless of the nature of that state, or its causes, or its outcomes.
This conversation reminded a lot of the theology arguments I would have in the theology group I was a part of, except then I would be getting hit from the other side of the spectrum, being called a liberal, a new ager, and other unsavory appellations. There I was frequently running up against Calvinists, traditionalists, people obsessed with Judaism and keeping the Mosaic Law, and so on.
The Scripture I am reminded of is when Jesus called the Pharisees "children in the agora calling out 'I played the lute and you didn't dance,' and 'I played a funeral dirge and you didn't weep.'"
Another thing this brings to mind is a line from the Analyst in Matrix: Resurrections where he says, "You people don't give a **** about facts! It's all about feelings!" And this was how the Analyst kept people under control in the new Matrix, by giving them just enough to fear losing while giving them just enough to hope for more.
What I have been in pursuit of for many years now are explanations which fit the datasets in question. No more and no less. Frequently though, these explanations either fly in the face of more conservative traditional theology, or, as in the case of the more left leaning person who was so vehement that my explanation was monstrous. It is an uncomfortable and very narrow middle road that sees attacks, insults, and rejection from both sides of the spectrum. One plays a joyful tune, one a funeral dirge, and both are upset that I am not joining either in rejection of the opposing side.
Do I believe God is love? Absolutely. Do I believe Torment exists? Absolutely. Can I honestly reconcile that? Yes, I can. Do I believe said Torment is forever? I think that's up to the individual tormenting themselves by rejecting Him. I don't think it has to be, and I think the timeless God whom I know is patient enough to wait for them to come around even if it takes what feels like forever.
My pursuit is for the reality of what is, not for what incites the emotions of either side.
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