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Back on the topic of the thread. I haven’t listened to the Everyone’s Agnostic podcast in a while, but I recommend it. The recent episode featured a young pastor who was very serious about God, then started reading. Oops. He gave a sermon about how the use hell in the NT is allegorical and specific to the 1st century. He said hell is used to describe what’s happening on earth, not some possible punishment, and how this relates to what we are learning about evolution and where our feelings about life come from. He was brought in for a meeting a couple weeks later and they laughed and asked what he was thinking when he did that. As he tells the story he also says he thought he was understanding the mission of Jesus and doing what Jesus would want him to.

He’s an atheist now, but was a Methodist then. He thought they were liberal enough to consider his thoughts. Well, some of them are, but most of them aren’t ready for that to be preached to the general congregation, save it for Wednesday night Bible study. I was also a Methodist, but the church I stumbled in to was specifically designed for people like me and this guy. He probably could have done that sermon there. As a member, talking about hell not existing was perfectly fine. I was not laughed out once my questions became more pointed, but there was a certain degree of marginalization. I never pushed those boundaries because there was no point. The things they were doing were good for individuals and for the surrounding community, so why mess with it? It’s as close as I’ve found to a church that’s doing what I think is in line with morals that trace back to the mix of Greek and Eastern cultures from 2,000 years ago. In the end though, it’s not possible to reconcile those morals with any Christian international organization.