Heretic. That is the name of an episode of "This American Life" about a preacher from Oklahoma City who attended Oral Roberts University and was a major force in the Pentecostal and Charismatic Evengelical Movement until a few years ago when other evangelicals branded him a heretic because he stopped believing in and preaching hell.
He is a scholarly pastor, and he has studied the books of the Bible in their original Greek and Hebrew. In fact, he has spent a good deal of time trying to trace his understanding of Biblical scripture to their oldest extant versions because he wanted to be sure that his understanding was as accurate as possible. This episode told the story of how that led him to what he calls a revelation from God that a truly loving God would not send anyone to Hell, that there is no Hell. Everyone is saved. And it changed his life. It nearly destroyed his 5,000 people a Sunday church, and he went from being one of the most influential pastors in the United States to one of the least influential pastors in Oklahoma City all because he preached a Gospel of Inclusion.
Hellfire and demons, to God loves everyone. I reccomend you go to the "This American Life" website and find their archive page for the year 2006. In Novemeber (I think) the episode "Heretic" aired, and it is an amazing revelatory story that made me understand a lot more about people of strong faith in my life, and it actually gave me a new and refreshing perspective on faith (No I am not going to go all crazy Bible thumping on you or even on me). Go the page, stream the episode, come on back and talk about it in the comments.
Where's Beebo?! There she is!!!
11 years ago
3 comments:
I really love the way the Gospel of inclusion changed the way this pastor and many of the members who stayed in his flock thought about the prostelyizing that had been such a large part of their life before, and what they think about prostelyzers now.
1) is it really appropriate to leave comments on your own blog?
2) i heard this episode when it first aired and i thought it was absolutely fascinating. i love that he is hated because he believes that god is all-loving. oh extremists!
3) i love this american life and would actually marry it if i could
I love commenting on my own blog!
This American Life is maybe my favorite thing in the whole wide world.
His story is so amazing to me--the personal growth in all sorts of directions. Wow.
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