Hands of God

We discussed this week a sermon called "In the Hands of an Angry God" as a preface to our reading of The Scarlet Letter.  In the sermon, the 18^thcentury preacher Edwards rants on about how completely screwed the world is because sinners have angered God, and how lucky they are that they have not yet been "swallowed up in everlasting destruction." (Edwards)

            I disagree with multitudinous aspects of Edwards’s sermon, but one that connects closely with The Scarlet Letter is Edwards’s definition of sinners.  Edwards believes that any who do not concur precisely with his view of the world are doomed, and that people are supposedly angering God by not converting to Edwards’s religion, Christianity.  In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is publically humiliated and habitually ostracized because she does something that those in charge deem to be sinful, echoing in fiction the real happenings of Puritan society.  The Puritan culture from which both Edwards and Hester come is full of people very determined that they, and only they, know what is right and what God wants.  As far as the pompous Puritans are concerned, anyone who does not agree with Puritan values can – and does – go to Hell.

            The following are my own conclusions; interpret them however you please.  I don’t want to be like the Puritans we are reading about by decreeing that my views are the best and must be accepted by all.
                The point both Edwards and the people who condemn Hester seem to miss is that while people may seem to be in the wrong from a certain perspective, they aren’t necessarily wrong from God’s perspective.  I believe that God accepts each person as that person is, and does not condemn anyone to Hell.  I believe Hell is an idea created by religious authorities who wanted to keep people in line, hoping that if the promise of Heaven for doing what the authorities wanted was not enough, the threat of Hell would suffice.  The thing is, I don’t think God sends anyone to Hell.  God is forgiving, loving, and universally understanding.  If someone does do something that God does not agree with, He does not throw that person into Hell for eternity – how would that help anyone?  Instead, I believe God raises everyone up to Heaven, and enlightens each person once there as to how God wants us to be.  I believe each person is given the opportunity to make up for things that person did in that person’s mortal life, by doing what that person now knows as good, to help the world from Heaven. ☺