The path of salvation. Jesus claimed that he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. He died and three days later he supposedly rose again. Where did he go in the meantime? Hell. Why did Jesus need the experience of going to hell and coming back again? Why was that the place he went? So that he could pay penance and repent for all human beings. So that he could be more like us and take our sins.

The problem with fundamentalist Christianity is that it basically warps the meaning of the text. If Jesus spoke almost entirely in parables and made-up stories used to a certain purpose, how likely is it that those who chronicled his life would write in a way that differed considerably? What if the entire text was seen as a kind of parable for life. Heaven is a good life. Hell is a bad one. By this standard, I believe that I understand the thrust of Christianity. I believe that I have had a brush with death -- with the idea and desire of my own death and I have escaped, to be reborn. A conversation with a good friend made this clear to me. That those who have not had this kind of transformative experience can never fully understand what it means and how different a person can really be. And that is sad. That salvation really cannot be for all. That accepting Jesus into your heart is a nice-sounding idea that holds little or no weight. Salvation must be bought with your own struggle. Taking up a cross -- a symbol of death after excrutiating pain -- being poor and simple and removed from the systems of the world's happiness and acheiving something greater. Something holy.
- Matt @ 7:55 PM