Loving Father or Spiteful Punisher

Hello, is there anybody out there? Now I've got Pink Floyd's The Wall album running through my head.

WARNING! This post is going to be a little on the preachy side, and 90% religious.  So if you're not interested in my opinion about God I'd suggest you go back to trolling YouTube channels for videos of cats.

Recently I was having a conversation with a wise old man, that many of you know as Grant.  Of course his favorite book, Love Wins, came up in our discussion. I mentioned that upon perusing said book it all sounded like the exact same things I learned in church all growing up, be kind, love everyone, God loves you, yadda yadda yadda. As often does while at work, our conversation was interrupted by our obligations to our employer.  But as Grant was walking away he made a final response to my statement saying that this book portrays God as an all loving Father rather than the spiteful, all powerful, punisher that is taught in religions world wide. This statement has obviously been on my mind since that encounter a week ago, so I've decided to write this post to spew forth my thoughts and opinions.

As you may or may not know/care, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or just Mormons if you're lazy. I am by no means a Peter Priesthood ( a not-so-loving nick name given to Mormons that have a "holier than thou" attitude). And nobody, except my children, would ever call me perfect. Hell, most strangers I meet don't even believe I'm Mormon.

So this is how I've interpreted the things I've read in scriptures and have been taught in Sunday school. God is an all loving Father, above everything else. He loves you, He loves me, He loves the people you and I love, and He even loves the people you and I hate. He loves all his children regardless of their race, religion, or which football team they favor. It doesn't matter what good works you've done in your life or what horrible mistakes you've made, He loves you.  I've never read in the Bible "God so loved only the Christians......".

However, I do understand my friends comment that religions preach of a vengeful God.  I'm not a stranger to other religions, and have heard many opinions of man, mingled with scripture.  I've heard the tales of a fiery pit where souls are tortured for an eternity because they told a lie.  I've been told that I'm born of sin and am inherently evil. I've even heard that I'm an insignificant accident of gelatinous primordial ooze that spontaneously evolved, for no apparent reason or purpose, into a semi intelligent creature. To all these people I say "ROTFLMAO!"

I am not saying there is no consequences to our actions.  Newton understood "To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction".  Just like kicking a coffee table barefoot, sins come with their own painful consequences.  Does that make God spiteful?  When you tell your child not to touch the stove because they will get burned are you being a tyrant?  And when they touch the stove and get burned, is it logical that your child should blame you for the burn? Just because God lovingly warns us what not to do, and sometimes even goes the extra mile to explain to us what may happen if we don't listen, doesn't mean he is the reason we get punished.  Just as you understand and comprehend much more than your young children, God knows infinitely more than us.  When you tell your kid not to eat a piece of cake before dinner what does your child think? I know my kids think I'm the meanest father in the world. They've not yet discovered the importance of eating healthy foods and the consequences of eating too much crap. Am I denying them cake because I'm mean, or is it because I love them and care for their well being and health?

Hell.  What is hell?  Personally I do not believe in a hole in the ground, surrounded by pits of lava and brimstone, where the devil rams pineapples into Hitler's bung whole for all eternity. I believe hell is an emotional state of being, like depression or anger. A constant feeling of regret and guilt for poor choices we made and never tried to rectify.  Try to recall how you felt when you were a child (before learning to self medicate and ignore such feelings) when you lied to your parents or stole from a friend. Now just magnify that feeling by all the bigger mistakes you've made and times it by forever. That, to me, is hell.

The other side of the coin, heaven.  A place to dwell in God's presence. So you're asking "if God loves us so much why doesn't he just let us all come to heaven, regardless of our actions?".  Would you really want to live in God's presences if you didn't do what he asked? When you were young and your mother found out you shaved your sisters head I'm sure you heard the dreaded phrase "Just you wait until your father gets home!".  Did you want your father to come home?  Hell no! You wanted to be anywhere but home.  Your father still loved you, even though you did something stupid.  But until you were ready to apologize and take your lumps you didn't want to be within reach of him.  God, loving us infinitely more than our earthly fathers, and even more than we love our children, understands the anguish and torment we would feel to be in his presence having made stupid mistakes and not repenting (trying to rectify the mistake and feeling a genuine sense of sorrow for the mistake).  For those of his children that choose not to repent, no matter how much more it hurts him to not have us with him, he allows for them to not be in his presence because their pain would be too great.

There you have the gospel according to KG.  Just like me, it's imperfect and flawed, as it is just the opinions of this ignorant man.  But this is my best attempt to explain what I feel about God and his endless love.  I love Him and know that He loves me.