22 February 2012

By Raymond Billy | ResonateNews.com

One year ago, author and Michigan mega-church pastor Rob Bell caused a stir with the release of “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.” The book calls into question whether hell is a place of eternal punishment and whether anyone will end up there to beginning with. Several rebuttal books and commentaries were written by theologians such as John MacArthur, John Piper and Francis Chan who hold traditional views about damnation for those who don't accept Christ as savior before death. These traditionalists were joined by allies they might not have expected: Atheist bloggers who believe Bell's teachings aren't true to the Bible.

Shawn Liu, a Florida social worker and self-identified ex-Christian, said he agrees with Bell's critics who say his views aren't doctrinally sound.

“It's funny that I agree with my former pastor because Bell really undermines what Christianity is all about,” said Liu, 30, who blogged last year about an ongoing dialogue he has with his believing wife that mirrors the Bell discussion. “If his ideas bring more people into the fold, it will probably bring in people who are wishy-washy and not committed to the real church.”

Liu — who said he became an atheist in 2008 but continued attending church until the beginning of this year — said Bell's speculation that people can accept the Gospel after death might prevent people from making Jesus lord. He said such theories render the affairs of this life meaningless.

“You don't even need a bedside conversion,” under Bell's scenario, Liu said. “You can just wait until after you die and say, 'OK. Now I believe.'

Bridget McKinney, 29, said she doubts Bell's approach to an ancient religion will inspire very many converts in the long run.

“I don't think that that kind of Christianity will be successful because it's not scriptural,” said McKinney, a Cincinnati-area ad sales representative who was raised Catholic. McKinney, who turned to atheism two years ago and also identifies as a secular humanist, said Bell is trying to explain away Jesus' teaching on hell to make Christianity more inclusive, a topic she has blogged about. She said the kind of biblical exposition Bell professes is something she joins her political adversaries in opposing.

“If there's one thing that people like me and” Republican presidential candidate “Rick Santorum can agree on, it's that something is either true or it's not,” McKinney said, referring to the Bible. “The problem with the Rob Bells of the world is that they want everybody to be right and everybody to be happy. You can't have it both ways.”

Nathan Dickey, a journalism student at Southern Oregon University, also said that Bell's was a theology of convenience.

“It bothers a lot of atheists in the blogos- phere that we take the Bible more seriously than a lot of Christians we know."
— Shawn Liu

“Rob Bell is hard pressed to find a way to get around these and many other passages,” that point to eternity in hell for those who don't believe in Christ “other than to conclude that certain parts of the Bible are wrong and others are right,” Dickey, 25, wrote in a review of “Love Wins” on his blog in June. Dickey told ResonateNews.com that Bell's theology of “love” puts him more in the secular humanist camp than the Christian one.

“In one sense, Bell's an ally because he's trying to move Christianity in a different social direction,” said Dickey, who grew up in a Baptist home. “As an atheist, my position is not to try to destroy religion, but to try to take the positive things about it — which have nothing to do with theology but more with social justice.”

Liu also said Bell's theology is a boon to secular humanism.

“I see Rob Bell as soccer goalie who accidentally scores for the other team. I think 'Hey, you're on the other team, but thanks for the goal.'”

Even if Bell's views are harmless to their cause, Liu said, many atheists he knows are irritated that many Christians don't take the Bible literally — as he said they should as believers.

“It bothers a lot of atheists in the blogosphere that we take the Bible more seriously than a lot of Christians we know. We say 'Isn't this what the Word of God says?'” Liu said. “When you start picking things out of the Bible that you don't like, you won't have much of a believe-system left.”

Indeed, Rochester, N.Y., resident TM Gagnon, who holds a theology degree from Northeastern Seminary there, said Bell's beliefs are not uncommon.

“In my experience at a Christian college and at seminary, I don't think Rob Bell's views are too far out of the ordinary,” Gagnon, 29, said. Unlike other bloggers who spoke to ResonateNews.com, Gagnon said he empathizes with Bell's no-hell speculations. But Gagnon, an ex-Baptist who now calls himself an atheist-leaning absurdist, said he abandoned his faith because his quarrels with the Bible became numerous.

“My theological views started to be too far from what the Bible says and I thought it was more honest to say 'I'm no longer a Christian' than to demand that I be called one and create a theological argument,” he said.

Another blogger, who declined to give his name but blogs under the pseudonym “Trakker,” said he hopes Bell's scrutiny of orthodox Christianity will eventually lead him to disavow the faith.

“Obviously Rev. Bell believes there is a Christian God as described in the Bible. I’m certain there isn’t,” he said in an email message. “While I have no interest in changing his mind, I would hope that at some point Rev. Bell’s studying, questioning, and common sense will lead him, as it did me, to come to the same conclusion I did and that he would then use his talents to help others see it too.”

Although Gagnon has blogged that “Love Wins” weakly argued its points, he told ResonateNews.com that Bell is preaching a message that many Christians want to hear.

“People tend to be uncomfortable with” the idea of hell, Gagnon said. “ It doesn't jive with some sense of how they'd like the world to be or how they would like things to work out.”

Photo By: Emily Rachel Hildebrand

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