Christian Century: Going Bunco by Martin Marty (HT Presbyweb)
Draw up your chairs, younger ones, and I will describe a moment in the Age of Innocence, back in late-medieval time of 1945-1949. Bring your chairs in close so you can be sure you are hearing right. Let me set the scene: it is New Year's Eve in one of those years. A score of us collegians are home for Christmas and—yes—have just been to church. Not only that, we formed a little choir, rehearsed and sang before we heard the sermon, and after the benediction went to one of our homes to party.
Our plans gave our pastor grist for his preaching. He said something like this: "I know you young people in the balcony. You are in church now, but later you are going carousing [pronounced carooosing] and partying, giving in to all the temptations of youth. And if something should happen to you and you cannot repent, you will be consigned to outer darkness, where there will be weeping and wailing of teeth." Had he been on a lectionary committee he would have voted for Luke 13:28 as the text for New Year's Eve, and he might have found that the text threatened the "gnashing"—not the "wailing"—of teeth. We decided to name our annual event "The Weeping and Wailing of Teeth" party.
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Still, there is one constant, which is a durable and growing belief in hell. In 1997 only 56 percent of polled Americans believed in hell, whereas 70 percent did so by 2004. If things keep going, that belief might rise to 100 percent in a few decades. Such data inspire sociologists and other suspicious sorts who cannot see that we are more virtuous because more of us believe in hell. Fear of hell and the desire to keep teeth ungnashed and unwailed are deterrents. …
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