Saturday, Sep. 26, 2009

Which kid would you send to hell?

Which of your kids would you send to hell?

The slacker? Maybe the one who mouthed off too much. Or the one who became a drug addict and has been in and out of prison.

No matter your choice, the majority of your kids - whether you have six or 16 - have to go. So which ones? Maybe the ones who skipped church too often or who never publicly declared an allegiance to Jesus or the one who walked away from Christianity and became a Buddhist or Baha'i or a Muslim?

You can't take all of them with you to heaven because they all didn't respond to your rules and requirements, didn't accept your love in the way you demanded. Which ones? Susie? Her dresses are too short and tight and blouses cut too low, after all.

Bob? He's never served God in the right way, not the way you have or wanted him to.

That provocative question shows up in the best-selling novel "The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity."

A little girl is kidnapped and murdered, sending her father into a three-year downward spiral until God sends him a note in the mail to meet him where the murder took place.

There, he experienced face-to-face interaction with the Christian Trinity: The Father, The Son, The Holy Ghost. In author William P. Young's version, The Father was a large black woman; Jesus was a dark-skinned Middle Eastern man; The Holy Ghost, an-almost translucent woman who moves like the wind.

He gets to ask questions directly to God in the flesh. He walks on water with Jesus, works in a garden with The Holy Ghost and pigs out on The Father's heavenly cooking.

Then he meets the personification of God's wisdom in the form of a woman in a cave.

That's where he's confronted with the choice.

"You must choose two of your children to spend eternity in God's new heavens and new earth, but only two," she said. "And you must choose three of your children to spend eternity in hell."

He was startled, but she kept pushing.

"I am only asking you to do something that you believe God does," she said. "... You believe he will condemn most to an eternity of torment, away from His presence and apart from His love. Is that not true?"

I couldn't send my kids to hell, not even if they refused my love. But we are supposed to believe God, the Father, can. And will.

Bailey's "Proud. Black. Southern. (But I Still Don't Eat Watermelon in Front of White People)" can be purchased at The Sun News ProudBlackSoutherner.com. He can be reached at ibailey@thesunnews.com or 626-0357.