"Nadia Bolz-Weber is .... founder of Denver’s House for All Sinners and Saints, this tattooed, profanity-loving Lutheran pastor....
Q: Do you think God punishes?
A: All I can say is, I certainly hope not.
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire:
A: In conservative Christianity, there’s this question, “How is your relationship with the Lord? Do you have a right relationship with God?” .... Whereas we think that being in right relationship is not making any mistakes so we don’t have to bother the guy. That’s not a relationship, then.
Loving God means keeping his commandments,
Q: Do you think God punishes?
A: All I can say is, I certainly hope not.
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire:
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mark 13:42
Q: Everywhere you see people trying to better themselves,
A: In conservative Christianity, there’s this question, “How is your relationship with the Lord? Do you have a right relationship with God?” .... Whereas we think that being in right relationship is not making any mistakes so we don’t have to bother the guy. That’s not a relationship, then.
Loving God means keeping his commandments,
and his commandments are not burdensome.
1 John 5:3 NLT
Q: Why do you write that we’re punished by our sins and not for our sins?
A: Hell, yeah, man. Harboring resentment instead of forgiving someone — that’s like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. That’s its own punishment, just like shopping at Wal-Mart is its own punishment. Being punished for your sins implies that God’s going to wreak havoc on you, God has this score sheet, and if you go over a certain number, then God’s going to make some horrible thing happen to you. God doesn’t have to do that. We do it to ourselves. Good Lord! We create our own hell.
...depart from me,
Q: At the end of “Accidental Saints,” you rewrite Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount with alternate “saints” — for example, “Blessed are the agnostics.” How is doubt saintly?
A: Doubt’s not the opposite of faith to me at all. I think certainty’s the opposite of faith. Doubt means you’re in an active, dynamic relationship to an idea. Certainty means you’re done thinking about it. I think there’s something really sacred about doubt.
Avoid such people. .....
Q&A from HuffingtonPost ... Bible verse responses supplied by DigDeeper
...depart from me,
all ye workers of iniquity.
Luke 13:27
Q: At the end of “Accidental Saints,” you rewrite Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount with alternate “saints” — for example, “Blessed are the agnostics.” How is doubt saintly?
A: Doubt’s not the opposite of faith to me at all. I think certainty’s the opposite of faith. Doubt means you’re in an active, dynamic relationship to an idea. Certainty means you’re done thinking about it. I think there’s something really sacred about doubt.
Avoid such people. .....
always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:5,7 ESV
Q&A from HuffingtonPost ... Bible verse responses supplied by DigDeeper