Using Heaven As A Carrot, Hell As A Two-By-Four

Hill talks about love again:

For almost two thousand years, there have been Christians who have felt the need to "keep score." One of the favorite tactics of the Church has been to use heaven as a carrot and hell as a 2x4.

Partly, I think this is due to human nature - the ugly side of it. At our ugliest, we like being in the in-crowd. For us to be insiders, some people have to be outsiders. Or so we think. Another problem with human nature is that we can't begin to comprehend the grace of God. We can't begin to understand how much God loves us. People like to quote the Letter to James and say that "God is love," but I fear that many of them have no idea, earthly or heavenly, what that means.

Mary Ann Hill

Read it all here at The North Narthex.