My biggest frustration has nothing to do with CHristians or Christmas, or people trampling each other for phones... I hate all the people who get up in arms over the evils of consumerism on Black Friday. Because 364 days of the year, these are the same people driving expensive cars, shopping at supermarkets and filling their homes with nice things to move up the social and economic ladder.
Consumerism, at its core, is the process of making money and buying things, in a continually increasing progression. Make money. Spend money. Make more money. Spend more money. Just because you shop at Whole Foods instead of Walmart, or drive a hybrid instead of an old Chevy, doesn't make you any less of a consumer.
And perhaps this "hell" that Christians are going to isn't some extra-metaphysical sphere beyond death: perhaps hell is Black Friday itself: crowds, lines, the non-neighborly gesture of cutting others in line for a giant Dora the Explorer. Perhaps Christians (and all of those contributing: consumer and retailer) are creating hell.
The modern Christian idea of hell is laughable. Not only because it's made-up mythological bullshit, because it's relatively NEW made-up mythological bullshit. I laugh at Christians who go on and on about the rapture. Not because it's any more silly than anything else Christians believe, but because it's a concept that's only been around less than 200 years. And really less than 100 in the mainstream churches dogma. When it comes to concepts like "hell" and "Satan" I laugh because modern Christians have literally taken non-Biblical pagan views and attached them to their own ideals. The actual Bible itself is so vague on the topic of the afterlife. I suppose that's because the Jews didn't know what to expect, and found mystery to be spiritual in itself. Christians have this NEED to put a face to everything. It's why they believe in things like hell, the Devil, the rapture, the "spiritual warfare" between angels and demons, etc. It's why they believe the Genesis story was meant to be literal, instead of just an ancient pre-Jewish creation myth, not unlike the Native American folklore you learn about in schools.
I did three semesters at a Christian University, studying theology and biblical history. And it's probably that, more than anything else, that made me STOP believing in anything the Christian religion had to offer. I think at this point in my life, if I was ever to "find the light" again, I would be a conservative agnostic, or maybe a very progressive Jew. But I'm really not good with money. So...that's probably out.
You could throw a dart at a board with time related descriptors on it and have an acceptable timeframe for when the church was corrupt. That's got nothing to do with God, the bible or the messages of Jesus but a natural consequence of the church being run by humans.
