Heaven

I had a conversation with someone a few years ago. She was younger, about 21, maybe 22, and had been married and had a kid. In the course of our conversation, she was talking about a friend of hers that had died. He had been shot to death during a drug buy, and there was some issues about the amount of drugs and alcohol in his system at the time of his death that was preventing him from being released to the family to be buried. None of that surprised me really, but what she said next floored me. "Well, we all know he's in a better place with Maw Maw and Paw Paw."

Really?

I was raised around churches my entire youth. Pentecostal Holiness, then Church of God, then Southern Baptist. The ONLY thing they agreed on was that NO-ONE got into heaven without being a Christian, which involved things like; clean living, high moral standards, no sex, following the Ten Commandments. I've read the Holy Bible (three times, cover-to-cover), most of the Mormon bible (an addition to, not a replacement of), most of the Holy Qur'an (Koran), and even parts of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Not a single one talks about drug dealing or taking of drugs as a way into any version of Paradise. So, how exactly, did her, her family and friends actually think that his SOUL went to Heaven? How? his life was full of drugs, bodily abuses, and immoral actions, all tied into the "drug dealer lifestyle". He didn't attend church, had no ties to any worship organization, and was known to as the "baddest boy" among this girl and her circle of friends.

Then I thought about the people I know, and what is said about anyone who dies. "They are in a better place." "They are with God." Some even say genius things like "He's up in heaven smoking a fat doobie, drinking with Jesus, and banging some hos all up in his Mansion." Where did these people go to Church? Bob's Feel Good Gospel Hour, Bar, and Car Parts? Have people lost all idea of WHAT Heaven is, and HOW a person gets in? I stopped believing in an afterlife years ago, but even *I* know how to gain entry, and what different Scriptures say about it. None of them are vague about the requirement, none talk about how you can buy your way in, or how you can sneak in the backdoor. Whatever happened to HELL?

It speaks to a larger problem, and a worsening mentality in society. There is less of a sense of consequence in this country now. The next generation sees scandals dismissed with a half hearted apology, and some of the worst moral dilemmas solved on a hour long TV show. We've gotten away from the sermons with Hell fire and brimstone, eternity in a burning pit, and imagery of endless torture and pain in favor of Feel Good sermons about How You're Going To Live Forever and God Wants You To Be Rich By Sending Me $1000.

It's total crap, and it is exactly what I've come to expect.