The book suggests that the defining problem driving out most people who leave is … just how American life works in the 21st century. Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote mutuality, care, or common life. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success. Such a system leaves precious little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s children. Workism reigns in America, and because of it, community in America, religious community included, is a math problem that doesn’t add up.
I wrestled with the concept of hell when I was in college, and it caused me to go nuts for a little while. I really, genuinely contemplated hell and what it actually was like and the implications of that for so many people I knew. Real Lovecraftian “horrors beyond human comprehension” kind of stuff. Christians don’t like to talk about it (outside of the church), but they actually believe 99.9% of humanity will spend eternity being tormented in ways we cannot imagine. And I think losing my mind a bit over it was a totally normal and rational reaction to that sort of thing.
The reality is that no Christians actually bother to think about hell much at all. It gives them satisfaction knowing the people they don’t like will suffer there but I don’t think hardly any Christians actually spend more than like 15 minutes of their lives thinking about hell. Because if they did, and they have even an ounce of empathy, they probably wouldn’t be Christians anymore.
IMO teaching kids about eternal torment in hell is child abuse and legally should be treated as such.
Yeah, if you can't tell a kid that you'll skin them alive and put needles in their nails for misbehaving, I don't see why telling them the Devil will do worse is all that much better.