Hell/heaven - any opinions?  Do they exist in the hereafter, only? 
 
Soffie
 



	
	
	 
	----- Original Message ----- 
	From: Funmilayo Tofowomo-Okelola <mailto:[log in to unmask]>

	To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>  
	Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 9:08 PM
	Subject: [AfriKWomanToWoman] "Nobody Goes to Hell": Minister
Labeled a Heretic
	
	
	
	'Nobody Goes to Hell': Minister Labeled a Heretic 

	One Minister Challenges the Idea of Hell and Loses His
Congregation

	 Carlton
Pearson<http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/abc_gma_hell2_070708_ms.jpg> 
	Minister Carlton Pearson lost hig mega-congregation after he
questioned whether hell really existed. (ABC)
	 
	From 2020 
	By BILL WEIR
	July 12, 2007 
	 
	Virtually every religion throughout human history has some
notion of a horrible life after death. And though the threat of fire and
brimstone is not preached as fervently in this age of reason, one man in
Tulsa, Okla., knows just how hard it is for modern believers -- and
their religious institutions -- to let go of the medieval vision of
hell. 
	"If I say everybody's going to heaven, then I can't raise money
from you to get me to keep people out of hell," Carlton Pearson said
with a wry smile. 
	Related Stories
	
	He knows firsthand that when it comes to filling pews, hell
sells. And when he stopped believing in it, he lost an evangelical
empire built over a lifetime. 
	Carlton Pearson was born to work a pulpit. 
	"My dad was preacher, his dad was preacher," he said. "Tongue
talkin', pew jumpin', holiness, hellfire and brimstone." 
	Pearson began casting demons out of people at age 16, and he
couldn't wait to go to Oral Roberts University. Once there, his love of
the Scriptures and his stage presence was so obvious, the renowned
televangelist took him under his wing and took him on the road as one of
the World Action Singers. 
	"Oh man, that was heaven on earth for me," Pearson said. "In our
opinion, Oral Roberts was the third cousin to the Holy Ghost." 
	After years preaching to crowded arenas and television
audiences, he built the Higher Dimensions church in Tulsa and soon
became an evangelical megastar with a megacongregation -- up to 6,000
people would attend his services each week, and he was in high demand in
the Christian world, sharing pulpits with Jerry Falwell and Pat
Robertson. 
	After the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, he was called to lead the
grieving in prayer. And he counseled both President Bush and President
Clinton on faith-based initiatives. 
	Throughout his rise, Pearson preached the fundamentals: Everyone
is born a sinner. Everyone is going to hell ... unless they accept Jesus
Christ as lord. 
	One sermon from the late '90s displays his passion: "Thank God,
I don't have to go to hell, even though I deserve hell," he shouted.
"But Jesus vicariously substituted for me, took on death, hell and the
grave, and I have the victory today." 

	
	
	A Crisis of Faith

	Through the years, as Pearson studied the ancient Greek and
Hebrew Scriptures, he developed a crisis of faith. 
	"I couldn't reconcile a God whose mercy endures forever, and
this torture chamber that's customized for unbelievers," Pearson said. 
	And he often agonized over the fate of his non-Christian family
members. According to his faith, they were doomed to hell. 
	"How can you really love a god who's torturing your grandmother?
And that's what I went through for years." 
	The more he studied, the more Pearson saw the Bible not as the
literal word of God but a book by men about God -- primitive men prone
to mistranslations, political agendas and human emotions. And one night,
as he watched Peter Jennings' report on the parade of suffering in
Rwanda, he had a revelation. 
	"I remember thinking that these were probably Muslims because
God wouldn't let that happen to Christians," he said. "Unbelieving
Muslims, little starving babies and that they were going to die and go
to hell." 
	"And that's when I said, 'God, how could you, how could you call
yourself a loving God and a living God, and just let them suffer like
that, then to suck them into hell?'" he continued. "And that's when I
thought I heard an inner voice say, 'Is that what you think we're
doing?' I said, 'That's what I've been taught. You're sucking them into
hell.' And that voice said, 'Can't you see they're already there? That's
hell. You created that.'" 
	Pearson believed that God was telling him hell is the creation
of man on earth. 
	"The bitter torment of the idea of an angry, visceral, distant,
stoic, harsh, unrelenting, unforgiving, intolerant God is hell. It's
pagan, it's superstitious, and if you trace its history, it goes way
back to where men feared the gods because something happened in life
that caused frustration that they couldn't explain." 
	

	Losing His Followers

	Pearson began sharing this message, and it wasn't long before
Christian magazines demonized him. The denomination that made him a
bishop officially labeled him a heretic. His assistant pastors quit, and
his congregation dropped from 6,000 to fewer than 300. 
	"When people leave by the thousands, it's like pulling clumps of
your hair out at one time," Pearson said. "It was hell. Now that's hell.
The people who created hell for me are people who used to love me and
will call themselves followers of Christ. It wasn't some secular,
atheist, God-hating infidel that denounced me ... my own brethren, with
whom I sat, and ate, whose babies I dedicated." 
	Through the years, as Pearson studied the ancient Greek and
Hebrew Scriptures, he developed a crisis of faith. 
	The more he studied, the more Pearson saw the Bible not as the
literal word of God but a book by men about God -- primitive men prone
to mistranslations, political agendas and human emotions. And one night,
as he watched Peter Jennings' report on the parade of suffering in
Rwanda, he had a revelation. 
	"I remember thinking that these were probably Muslims because
God wouldn't let that happen to Christians," he said. "Unbelieving
Muslims, little starving babies and that they were going to die and go
to hell." 
	"And that's when I said, 'God, how could you, how could you call
yourself a loving God and a living God, and just let them suffer like
that, then to suck them into hell?'" he continued. "And that's when I
thought I heard an inner voice say, 'Is that what you think we're
doing?' I said, 'That's what I've been taught. You're sucking them into
hell.' And that voice said, 'Can't you see they're already there? That's
hell. You created that.'" 
	Pearson believed that God was telling him hell is the creation
of man on earth. 
	"The bitter torment of the idea of an angry, visceral, distant,
stoic, harsh, unrelenting, unforgiving, intolerant God is hell. It's
pagan, it's superstitious, and if you trace its history, it goes way
back to where men feared the gods because something happened in life
that caused frustration that they couldn't explain." 
	
	As his life came apart, he agonized over his new belief. 
	"If you think I haven't sat and asked God, 'Am I crazy? I see
you bigger and better but am I, am I gonna lead people to hell?' Kill me
God." 
	
	It seemed like that prayer might be answered when his doctors
found cancer. 
	

	Life After 'Hell'

	Pearson stuck with his new message, even after losing his church
altogether. He now rents space from the Episcopalians across town. And
his congregation is growing. Slowly, people from all faiths are adding
to the few who never left, despite being labeled heretics themselves. 
	"I think hell is a state of mind," said Teresa Reed, a music
teacher, stuck with Pearson throughout the turmoil. "And if my family
heard me say this, which they probably will, there will be fasting,
prayer and sack cloth and ashes for my damned soul." 
	After the avalanche of hate mail and all the rejections, Pearson
says people are slowly warming to his ideas. His cancer is in remission,
and he doesn't regret his difficult path. 
	"Religion won't let you love yourself. Religion is the accuser
of the brethren, that's what the devil is. It's legal systems, religious
dogmas that say you're not good enough, you're not God enough," he said.
"People who believe in hell create it for themselves and others. People
who believe in devils and demons become that in consciousness, and they
act it out." 
	Pearson said he firmly believes, as he told his congregation one
recent Sunday, "We may go through hell, but nobody goes to hell." 
	But his current message does not focus on hell, even the hell
that humans sometimes create here on earth. 
	"My hope is that, that people will learn to love themselves,
accept themselves and celebrate themselves. That's pretty dramatic, but
I think it'll save the planet." 
	.
	
<http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=3476126/grpspId=1705116291/m
sgId=24335/stime=1184550609/nc1=3848569/nc2=3848549/nc3=4699089> 
	__,_._,___ 


    


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