About a week ago as I was driving home from class, a friend of mine and I were having a discussion. The discussion evolved from general politics to the horrors of war to the use of the word "hell." I made the comment that it disturbs me that our culture has so trivialized hell that the word and the reality behind the word has become a joke or a punch line. And I wondered out loud why that is ... how did we get to the point where we could come to speak of the worst possible existence imaginable in such thoughtless, throw-away comments. For someone to say, 'He/She can go to hell for all I care' demonstrates a lot about the speaker. The person making that remark:
- Has a remarkable amount of ignorance about the reality of hell.
- Has such a cold hearted-ness to them that they would take no pause about sentencing someone to unspeakable horror and torment.
- Has elevated him/herself to the status of God.
I'm not going to go into a history lesson of how the usage of this word has evolved in the common vernacular. But it seems plain to me that our culture has decided that, instead of deal with the reality of hell and the consequences that would have on our moral choices, it would better to make light of it because, after all, if we can joke about it then we can diminish the reality of it (in our minds) to the point where we don't have to be concerned about it. Regardless of whether my above point is correct or not, the truth of the matter is this: hell is real - whether we want to believe it is or not.
Sidebar comment: I am not trying to "scare" anyone into becoming a Christian, religious, or even spiritual. It would be incredibly short-sighted for a person to do that based solely on the fear of going to eternal punishment upon dying. This is a discussion of language and its usage. Likewise, I'm not going to go into the theology of eternal punishment, I don't have the time to be thorough and there are a number of good books on the subject that I could recommend if you're interested.
My point is this, whether you believe in hell or not please recognize the gravity of the concept behind the word. I would argue that if you can flippantly (or even seriously) condemn someone to eternal torment, then there is something wrong with your humanity. I know that there are several words in our language that people shudder to use based on the politically or racially charged baggage that comes with them. I'm not going to argue the merits or demerits of those reactions. But I will argue that hell is infinitely worse that any name you could ascribe to someone, and yet we hardly notice when anyone uses it anymore. Well, I notice it. I heard it just yesterday on a popular talk show program where one woman said of another, "She's going to hell!" If any statement should produce in us a negative reaction, it should be that one. (To be clear, I'm not arguing politics here either ... I don't care who is saying it, the result is the same.)
Stop and think about it, please. Think about what it means. I know that I am guilty of making comments off the cuff that are truly regrettable. But the more I think about this word in particular, the more I am convinced that making such comments conveys more negativity on the one making the comment than the person to whom the comment is directed. Remember there is only One who has the authority to sentence a person to hell, and it's not you and it's not me either.
I've decided to completely remove such statements from my speech, especially my flippant comments. I'm challenging you to do the same and encourage others to follow suit. I also welcome any comments you might have on this.
No comments:
Post a Comment