thread: 2005-06-06 : Happenings
On 2005-06-08, Brand Robins wrote:
Meguey said: "And not because I'm 'saved' either, just because I have not been brought up to think of Hell as a stick/fact, or Heaven as a carrot/promise."
I like this point.
There is, however, something ironic in it for me. Mormons, you see, don't really believe in hell—at least not in the way most Christians do. To go to Mormon hell you have to really, really, really try, and even then you won't make it, and you'll never just end up there by accident. So hell really isn't a threat in my church.
However, there are different degrees of heaven. (Three of them, and the top one has three sub-levels in addition.) Those degrees of heaven give different rewards based on what you do in your life. Now for a lot of Mormons this is a nice little system, where in you get rewarded no matter what, but the more you try the nicer of a reward you get. But for some....
I have talked to Mormons who are more afraid of going to the lowest level of the Celestial kingdom (the highest heaven, just the basement level of it) than most Catholics I've ever known are of going to hell. The very idea that they might not achieve exaltation doesn't just disapoint them or urge them to do better, it fills their very bodies with a shuddering fear that makes them instantly shut down any conversation they were just having.
So I suppose that even if you don't have the stick, some folk can get so fixated on the carrot that not getting a taste gives them a deep terror.
