Should God be more tolerant.........?

In a recent conversation, the subject of fear based on strict or abusive teachers in the past has been brought up among one of my friends. who mentioned a very good lady who will not go to Church due to anxiety from things in her past, and who now lives in fear of going to Hell. He wanted to know if there wasn't a better way. He also stated that both of them are suffering from depression, and said that they had experienced very similar things as children. He and others spoke of being taught to fear God (not in the 'AWE' sense of fear) rather than to love Him by the example of many adults in their lives. He titled his first email "Based on Fear?"

He asked "How can we love when we are always afraid. Were the nuns right to be so strict? Isn't love a better way?"
(Note: There were also very strict public school teachers, etc, so this is NOT about nuns).

Part of my response was:

Love is always best, but that does not preclude being strict. The sad thing was that way back then, nuns had only three choices in what they did. The head of the orders made the decisions about what they did, based on their ability to progress in school, etc. They became nurses, teachers or housekeepers. 

 

Some should never have been teachers. (I can add parents, social workers, foster parents, Doctors, Nurses, and so on.) 

 

And some of them were forced into the convent by every one assumig that THIS DAUGHTER will be our nun. Many of them were probably also depressed, but they did not have the medications that we have today to help it.

 

If we can try to place ourselves in the others' positions, sometimes we can find ways to forgive and heal. Not always, but sometimes, if we can 'see' what they went through, we can learn to understand a little bit, and let go. I hope your friend can someday heal, also. 

In the course of the conversation, he mentioned that he is currently reading Bill O'Reilly's book Culture Warrior . The "Culture War" discussed is between "Tradionalists" and what the author calls "Secular Progressives" or "SP's".

My friend said:
"Secular Progressives believe that our old way of teaching is too harsh
and that God should be more tolerant."

Though there were others involved in the conversation, so a few other good points were made, but, it was that comment which caused me to try to find words to respond in a way that would help to ease his pain in some way. Perhaps it will help someone else, too.....


God is very tolerant. He is so tolerant that He has not used His Justice as He could, if He so chose.

God is so tolerant that even though He is all-knowing, He still created the Angels, knowing full well that some would rebel.

He still created mankind knowing full well that the very first two He made would defy His one rule for them, and eat of the Tree of Good and Evil, even knowing that for them, He would send His Son to suffer and die as a Man, in order to give us another chance. Something that the Angels did not get.

He is so tolerant that He will forgive and throw away as far from Him as He can, each and every one of our sins, made in spite of His love and mercy, tolerance and JUSTICE... all in the name of our Free Will.

He is so tolerant that regardless of the nature of our sin, no matter how tiny or how heinous, He does not strike us down with thunderbolts, drown us in floods (meaning all of civilization), nor put us into the Pit of Hell even when that is what we deserve... He keeps calling us to Him, He keeps sending others to us to draw us to Him...right up to the last second of our lives, when we may once more choose Him... or deny Him, and thus, choose ourselves where we will spend Eternity. He does not send us there, we send ourselves.

But in all the 'love and mercy' talk about God, we forget that He is All Good. ALL GOOD, and cannot have any evil, any bad in His Presence. Hence, He has a way to 'purge' us of any temporal residual left behind on our very souls when we have confessed our sins, big and little, omission or commission, whether that is here on earth, or in a place we may call 'Purgatory', a way to take a 'Heavenly Shower' and change into spotless wedding clothes He provides to replace our earthly rags.

And we forget that He is JUST. If we choose to defy Him right up to the end, He cannot, and will not, 'back down' at the last second and say.... oh, it is ok... you can still come in.... because, again, He is All Good.

He is Mercy. He is Love. He is Just.

We ARE recipients of His Mercy and Love right now, whether WE feel it or not, simply because we are here, known to Him from the beginning of Time, including our rebellion...and our repentance or lack of it.

SP's who say that God should change and "accept them as they are"...forget that God has already done just that. Instead of being grateful and loving Him more for it, however, they are choosing to TELL GOD and everyone else that He must accept EVIL as good.

He Can't. He won't. He shoudn't.

He gave us the way to be with Him in the Ten Commandments. When that failed, He gave us HIS SON, to die a horrendous death in our place, and take OUR guilt on HIMSELF.

And He had that in mind right from the very beginning, when He created us. He knew, even then, that we would try to tell HIM how to save us instead of choosing to follow His way.

Good is not Evil. Evil is NOT GOOD. And the things that the SP's are trying to change in our society are things that will lead to more evil, more rebellion, more people in the Pit of Hell at the end of Time, for all of Eternity.

Being Traditionalist does not mean not loving.

Sometimes, Love means that you say no to another, or to yourself.

Sometimes, it means standing firmly for what is right. Love the sinner, hate the sin.

And yes, we are called to admonish the sinner by our very Corporal/Spiritual Acts of...

what?



..... of Mercy.


God Bless!!!