Saved

As many of you know, I am from West Virginia. It’s a place that is steeped in a certain kind of Christianity. Of course, just like any place across much of the United States, you will find a variety of denominations. But I would say that at least half of the Christians in the area are in the evangelical, fundamentalist, Bible-believing camp. They talk about “the Scriptures” as being “the Word of God.” They talk about being “born again.” And they have no qualms about asking you, “Have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior?” They also divide the world into two groups, those who have been “saved” and those who have not.

Rather than thinking of themselves as merely believers or converts or adherents to a particular faith or tradition, they claim to have been “saved.” Of course if you directly ask them, they will claim that their god loves everyone. But most will insist that if you don’t believe what they believe, repent of what they claim to be sin, then their god will judge you and reject you even though he supposedly loves you. But they don’t have to worry about being on their god’s shit list anymore because they have been “saved.”

Whether or not they want to accept it, this conceit allows them to think of themselves as special and more deserving than others who aren’t “in the club.” They believe they know “the truth” and that there is little to learn from anyone else. Those who are not “saved” are not favored by their god. They may like you. You might be a beloved family member, a friend, a next door neighbor, but if you are not “saved”, then, in their eyes, there is something seriously wrong with you. And often times they see it as their mission to try to get you to accept their religious beliefs so you can be “saved”, too.

During my father’s viewing, one of his longtime friends came up to me while I was standing right beside my father’s casket and asked if I believed all the “right” things and if I had been “saved.” He claimed that approaching me in this way was an act of charity on his part because my father, who had been “saved”, was going the Heaven, and he would surely want me to go there, too. The implication being that I wouldn’t be allowed to go to Heaven unless I had been “saved.”

Nearly every funeral I have attended included a sermon delivered by a preacher who warns the mourners that one day, perhaps very soon, they will die. And he tells them that they must believe certain things in order to be “saved.” They also add that it’s best to proclaim your beliefs so that loved ones will know that you have been “saved” and that they will be able to reunite with you in Heaven.

This attitude is something that I had a hard time stomaching. And it’s not simply because I’m gay. It’s more to do with the underlying arrogance. They come at you as if they already know all the important things, and if you’re not “saved”, then nothing you have to say could be of much value. And it really is that overt and belittling. It leads to division, animosity, hurt feelings, discrimination, dehumanization, and on a large scale, it can lead to persecution and even war.

I think that if there is a god, then we are all saved. Some might have more wisdom and insight than others, and this might help them accept and enjoy life, but if any one of us has worth in a cosmic and grand sense, I think we all do. And I reject the idea that people have to jump through certain hoops, claim to believe certain things before they’re worthy of being saved. If there is a god, the idea that this god will throw billions of us away at the end of time, or punish us in hell for all eternity, just because we didn’t bow and scrape in just the right way is repugnant to me.