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A student skeptic genuflects on GodTube.com
By Jeremy | November 13, 2007
I had the pleasure of speaking last night at NYU's InterVarsity MEF chapter. Along the way I picked up the school daily, the Washington Square News, and found this on the editorial page.
Christ has risen. All the way to the glorious heights of online video sharing. Welcome to GodTube.com: Bow your heads, genuflect and double-click. Truly the people's pulpit, GodTube is YouTube for Jesus freaks.Reflecting on the website's tagline, "Broadcast Him," the columnist observes:
"Testicles come standard with most internet-sponsored deities."On the idea of hell as fire and brimstone:
First off, why is it always the same old sulfurous sea? Sorry, ... your hell is trite. The infinite cosmic imagination can only come up with a gate, a "Book of Life," a flaming chasm and some pissy angels? No, if there's an afterlife, it's gonna blow your mind.On the idea of hell as eternal punishment:
And the mercy conundrum. Why is God such a b!+@h? So all the unconditional love and forgiveness stops with your pulse? How ... arbitrary.On her perception of Christians who believe in hell:
That's my biggest problem with afterlife paranoia. It devalues this life and warps our morality. Heaven and hell are permanent, they're the real deal, so ... Lie low, try not to be gay and you're good.On her preoccupation with life-before-death:
My beliefs aren't metaphysical, they're moral, and they're only concerned with this world. It's hellish enough, and that's all our consciences should worry about.Funny thing is, I agree with a lot of what the author writes. While disagreeing with her conclusions, I can understand why she would draw them based on much of the trite, thoughtless, and mean copy-cat cheese that permeates Christian subculture ghettos (whether on or off-line). I can't help but wonder what might happen if Christians spent less time preaching to (and entertaining) themselves, and more time alleviating the pain and suffering that give rise to the hellish world that so clearly concerns her. How might her perception change if she experienced real Christians in real-time living a "faith expressing itself in love" before we die?
Topics: culture, death, faith, godtube.com, intervarsity, life, nyu, speaking | No Comments »
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