Choice

It is really hot today where I live. The thermometer is nearing on hundred degrees F.  I don't know about you, but that's hot, as far as I am concerned.  I like the heat much more than the cold, but this is getting near the limit.

Speaking of hot, I saw an interview with Joel Osteen on 60 minutes.  As part of this, 60 minutes interviewed a theologian asking what he thought about Osteen's message.  He called Osteen a heretic.  Now I might be a bit prejudice about people who are called heretics since I am in their camp.  The thing is, this theologian said that Osteen talked too much about good things and not enough about hell.  Osteens' answer was that people knew how and when they were wrong, he wanted to give them hope.

I agree with him.  Religion has turned off so many people because it has wanted only to scare the hell out of people (yes, pun intended).  Religion has very seldom been about giving people hope or telling them that God loves them, even thought scripture says that.  When one reads scripture, and here I am talking from a Christian tradition, the central message is of hope.  If this is true, and it is, then why do so many preachers, priests and theologians want to ignore that message of hope and dwell on the negative.  That seems to come from someplace other than God, the Infinite source of all. 

To be a heretic means to choose what to believe.  I guess Joel Osteen, myself, and a few others choose to believe that God loves us, makes a way for us, gives us ways to live that are truly remarkable, and is more than an evil tempered Tyrant. Here's to choice!