This post is written by Sam Riviera, a frequent contributor to this blog.
You’re disgusting! Burn in hell!
How would you like it if someone said that to you? You probably wouldn’t like it.
Do we have the right to tell anyone that they should burn in hell? Do we have the right to say it to people who march in Gay Pride parades? To women who have had an abortion? To prostitutes? To child molesters? To murderers?
Especially when we realize that, in the minds of most, “hell” is a place where people get tortured and tormented for all eternity. Telling someone they should burn in hell is announcing your desire that they suffer in agonizing pain forever and ever. Is telling someone they should burn in hell really Christlike love?
Maybe people who say such a thing should be arrested, as Bill O’Reilly, Fox news host, suggested on his show.
What would you do if someone got in your face about something they didn’t like about you, about who you are, what you believe, what you have done, or how you live, and told you that you will burn in hell for those things? Is telling someone to burn in hell commendable Christian behavior or condemnable Christian behavior?
Love in the Margins
All of my life I’ve had friends who many have considered on the margins, the outer edges of society – LGBTs, homeless, prostitutes, addicts, murderers and other criminals, and you-name-it. I love these people. I mingle with them. I talk with them. I hug them. I walk arm-in-arm with them.
Because of my close association with people on the margins, people who don’t know me often assume I’m one of them.
There have been times when my friends and I have been sitting and talking, when someone approached us with their Bible verses and called us disgusting. We’ve been walking arm-in-arm when we were told we’d burn in hell. We’ve been bullied because people thought we were gay. We’ve been threatened with physical harm because of who or what people thought we were.
We’ve experienced hatred directed at us by people who do not know us. We‘ve seen anger, red faces, bulging blood veins, and waving fists. We’ve experienced fear for our safety. All of this behavior was frequently accompanied with Bible verses and numerous references to Jesus.
What would you do in such a situation? Would you go home, or spend more time with your homeless friends? Would you avoid Gay Pride day or march in the parade with your gay friends?
Or would you join the people holding enormous signs telling everyone else they’re going to burn in hell?
Don’t Tell Me to Burn in Hell
If you’re Hindu and think godly people shouldn’t eat beef, then you should live that way. But I’m not Hindu and don’t care and don’t agree. If you have any sense, you’ll keep your religious opinions to yourself and not tell me I am going to burn in hell because I eat beef.
If you’re vegan and think people shouldn’t eat animal products, then you should live that way. But I’m not vegan and don’t care and don’t agree. If you have any sense, you’ll keep your opinions to yourself, and not tell me I am going to burn in hell because I eat meat.
If you believe I’m lazy and good-for-nothing because you think I live on the sidewalk downtown, then keep your opinions to yourself. I do not need to know what you think. If you can’t show me Jesus by saying a kind word, giving me a sandwich or a hug or helping me in some way, keep your Bible verses and religious opinions to yourself. I don’t care what you think and don’t want to hear it. Consider the possibility that in a few years the situation may be reversed and I’ll have a good job and you’ll be sitting in front of me asking for a job.
If you think your holy book says I’m an abomination because you think I’m gay, and that I’m going to burn in hell forever, please keep your opinions to yourself. If you can’t show me Jesus by getting to know me, saying a kind word, hugging me, and loving me, then please, please go to your religious meetings with people like you and leave the rest of us alone.
If you can’t show me Jesus by the way you act, by the way you treat me and others like me, go away. Go hide behind the walls of some building, sing your silly songs, and read your holy book. Please stay there and leave the rest of us alone. There is no need for you to come out from behind your walls, wave your signs, and shout curses upon us to go burn in hell.
You don’t know me. Until you spend time with me – lots of time – and walk with me, sit with me, love me, understand me, you should not try to tell me anything about what I should do or how you think I should live.
You will think what I am about to say is irreverent, but here goes – Fix yourself first. Fix your own screwed-up life, your own messed-up family. Look in the mirror. Who you see is the person you need to fix. Leave the rest of us alone. I think Jesus said it this way: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
You have no right to try to fix us, to try to change us. You have no right to assume anything about us. You have no right to judge us or condemn us. You definitely have not right to tell us to burn in hell. Who do you think you are – God? That position is already filled and not by you.
Read your holy book and see what Jesus really did, how he really treated people. Treat me like that. Once I know you care about me and love me, maybe I’ll ask why, since your kind have never cared about me or loved me. I’ve been spit on, called names, threatened with eternal burning, threatened with your fists, and threatened that your god is going to do terrible things to me.
I know you hate me and you think your god hates me too. I don’t want anything to do with you or your god. Both of you are mean, evil, and nasty.
Hanging out with Jesus
Jesus I like. I want to see him. I want to sit with him, and talk with him. But you – you repel me. Go away. Leave me alone. Until you’re ready to love me, Goodbye Mr. Christian, Mr. Bible-verse-quoter, Mr. “You’re disgusting. You’ll burn in hell.” Goodbye and good riddance from all of us.
This Jesus fellow says that if you believe him you’ll do what he says. That’s in your Bible. You missed that part, huh? Jesus was such a good friend to the people in the margins, to the “sinners” – the traitorous tax collectors, the terrorist zealots, the promiscuous prostitutes, the drunks, the thieves, the liars, and murders – that those religious people who hated these “sinners” also hated Jesus.
Have you ever thought that by telling the people you think are sinners to go burn in hell, you are telling the same thing to Jesus? Because he’s one of us. No, he’s not a sinner, but he hangs out with us. He loves us. He sits and talks with us, hugs us, and dances with us. And you, because you never got to know us, didn’t realize Jesus was among us when you told us all to go burn in hell.
I won’t say the same thing back to you. I won’t tell you to go burn in hell. I wouldn’t pronounce that curse on anyone. You may think I am an abomination, but notice that I don’t think the same thing about you.
I enjoyed this blog very much Jeremy. Your friend Sam seems to have some great insight. I have believed for years that the “church” has been driving people AWAY from Jesus and I do pray that we will simply listen to Him and let Him fix us first. I have said for a long time that, “the job of the Holy Spirit was filled – and I didn’t get it”. So I no longer want to force change on people – I want to introduce them to the One who can make them new. Thanks for your continued faithfulness to the Truth.
Good for you
Jim
Thank you, Jim. May we share the love of Jesus, rather than our opinions.
Amen!
Yes, learning to love those with whom we disagree looks like Jesus.
Thanks, Mary. Yes, I really like Sam’s posts as well. They are always so helpful, showing practical ways of following Jesus into the world and loving others like Jesus.
Sam,
Great post as usual. I hear this exact sentiment so often from the people we work with. I think the part I like most is if you can’t show me Jesus by the way you act go away. I really wish Christians would follow this advice. Stop giving God’s reputation a black eye, just cloister yourselves in your building, and leave those outside alone. If you cannot bring people closer to God, at least stop driving them away.
FedEx
Thank you, FedEx. We share these sentiments with many people we know. We are constantly surprised at how many of the street people, the people in the margins know the real deal (Jesus followers) from what I call the “religious folks” who are selling their brand of religion and whatever comes with it.
Love people. Don’t try to convince them that what they think, how they live, what they do is wrong, so they need to do it like you and your religion do it. It almost never works. Give them a helping hand. Thanks FedEx for what you and your group are doing in Colorado loving people.
The Holy Spirit is the one that brings the right kind of conviction to a person’s life. We have to show them Christ’s love and let Him do the rest by His Spirit. Saying to someone to “burn in Hell” is a self righteous, unloving, vengeful statement that no one should make, especially Christians. Instead of converting a person, it makes them think that they are beyond forgiveness, which is of course absolutely false!
Yes. It also may make others think we don’t look like Jesus. I heard a recent discussion among a group of people who had been told this and they thought that those saying such things (such as Westboro Baptist) are really seeking free publicity for their cause and perhaps will provoke someone to do something that will provide them (Westboro or whoever) a basis for filing a lawsuit. Thank you for the insightful comment, Vince.
Im french Canadian ill make mistakes writting
I think Christians should tell people that Jesus love them and talk about the love of God that is What people need, and if you wanna do something love them instead of judging and comdamning cause that Isnt love its hate, pray for them be kind with them. Also you cannot change anýnone but yourself, and even so its hard to change sometimes impossible to change. Work on yourself not on the others. Peace
You have the idea, David. My we, as followers of Jesus, take the love of Jesus to our communities.
Your English seemed fine to me! Thank for leaving a comment. I wish I could respond in French…
Soooo eternal torture for finite crimes? Wow, you people are awful.
God should really burn in hell for punishing many of us innocent people for no reason at all, especially many of us single people that never wanted to be single in the first place.
Christians favorite thing is to send people to hell, a place that doesn’t physically exist (according to Pope John Paul II in his 90’s address). Rather a mental place that many people are in daily eitherway.