I received a request tonight to give my opinion on a piece that Barbara Walters did on ABC News tonight. The piece was entitled, “Heaven, Where is it? How do we get there?” (I didn’t see it on TV, Anonymous Visitor so thanks for the link to the story.)
Here is a portion of the story:
Dec. 20, 2005: Nearly nine out of 10 people in the United States say they believe in heaven, according to a recent ABC News poll. But what exactly do people think of when they think of an afterlife and what do they believe is required to get there?
Because of my notorious “Monday Morning Preacher” post last month, I must be much more careful and responsible in giving my opinion on such weighty theological matters. You’d be amazed who can get a hold of these pieces.
To be honest, I’ve never given too much thought to heaven. That might surprise you being that I am a Believer, but I’ve always figured that heaven will take care of itself.
I did come across some pretty interesting statements in the Barbara Walters piece though. Dr. Calvin Butts, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in NY, gives the classic description of heaven when asked by Walters: “no tears, no mourning, no suffering. It’s eternal joy and happiness because you are at one with God.” Now, that is a classic and traditionally celebrated theme in the African American Christian concept of heaven. It sounds like “justice” to me. Justice and Peace. He kind of goes off and says that heaven is like a fourth dimension. I think I lost him in the soundbyte on that one.
Pastor Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals gives the routine “heaven talk” that really has a way of making me cringe. He says, “The purpose of life is to glorify God and go to heaven…cause heaven is our home.” Such a simple explanation for such a complex ideology. The concern is that too many Christians just accept that sequacious explanation and we even sing about it.
“He came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross, our debt to pay, from the cross to the grave from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high.”
Sound familiar? A nursery rhyme song as potent as the “ABC” song that propagates the evangelical view of Christology and discourages the levites who sing it from unpacking the presuppositions enshrined in its lyrics.
Then a NIH geneticists, Dr. Hamer, talks about his research which suggests that some humans have a “God gene” – a personality trait encoded in our genes which makes some humans more prone to believe in God. I can go for that, but I think the research community is stretching — trying to measure, control, describe, and/or identify some spirituality disposition in human beings. I think science can take you but so far then some immeasurablee force/factor kicks in.
Well, finally, as an attempt to address the questions raised in the title of Barbara’s piece, I conclude by admitting that I’m not going to pretend to know the answers. (Are preachers allowed to say that?)
Where is heaven?
I don’t know.
How do we get there?
Well, the Pauline Epistles supply a formulaic process on how to get there, but other Faiths have their own process.
I guess we must engage The Almighty, Divine, All Knowing, Every Where Present God who created all of us human beings and who for some reason allowed us to craft our various religious categories in an effort to try and understand HER/HIM better. And if the THE ALMIGHTY doesn’t seem too interested in giving us a quick and pat answer concerning the heavenlies then perhaps we’ll do well to rest on what Grandma said, “We’ll understand it better by and by.”
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