Sitting in the waiting room until my name was called to see the dentist this afternoon, I skimmed through the December 2005 issue of Readers Digest until falling on an article about an upcoming Barbara Walters' television special on Heaven. With only a couple of minutes to spend I never got that deep into the selection let along finish the article. Still a couple of things stood out.
There are 10,000 religions! Nine out of ten Americans believe in an afterlife with a majority believing they will realize it whatever it might be. Walters went to an Israeli prison where she interviewed a 21 year old Palestinian who, when only 17, participated in a foiled suicide bombing attempt. He wanted to kill Jews he recounts, believing he would be rewarded by entering into paradise where he would experience "joyous sex on silken couches amid rivers of milk and honey." Walters, a Jew, asked whether he believed she would be welcomed into paradise. The response sounded something like expect to rot in hell.
Then she interviews the head of the National Association of Evangelicals, the most politically influential religious group in the country. Is it possible, Walters asks, for a person to make it into heaven without accepting Jesus as their personal savior? Matter of factly and without hesitation the answer was, "No."
These thoughts set my mind into high gear pondering the contradiction inherent in such an exclusive view of religious entitlement with respect to attaining a heaven or paradise. While I do not purport to be an expert on world religions, I think it is safe to say that a majority are built on embracing as many people as possible into their fold. Community. Oneness. Yet somewhere along the line this view as been twisted as religions have become closed minded and divisive. The doors to an invitation God extends to all are closed by the religion's adherents.
Does anyone else see a contradiction here?
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