I just found out that (some anyway) hyper-Christians don't believe that dogs go to heaven

[renate]

I'm weirdly excessively upset by this, because it's just so absolutely cold-hearted and unloving. I'm not a Christian and don't believe in the Christian idea of heaven or God or whatever, but it just breaks my heart that there are people among us who think that sure, they'll definitely get into heaven, but creatures as loving, pure, and good as dogs (or cats or guinea pigs or rats or birds) don't get to go too.

It just says so much about (some of) the kind of people that eat, breathe, and live Christianity that they can be so dismissive of other sentient beings' worthiness. I knew that a lot of evangelicals were racist and sexist, but that's nothing new and I'm used to that idea (and am more upset about that part of their beliefs, of course). Maybe it's because I just haven't come across any crazy Christian webpages before that I feel so sad. They just seem like such mean and heartless people.

I came across these webpages because I was looking for a story called "No Dogs in Heaven" that I saw mentioned on a pet bereavement subReddit. (Our pets are all fine but I do miss the ones who have already left us.) This screed below has genuinely made me sick to my stomach. He's upset that people love and care for their pets! What a horrible, horrible man:

When my son was born I saw a car in the hospital parking deck with a sticker that read “Dog grandma”. I felt sorry for whomever owned that car. My parents were rejoicing over having a new grandchild, a real one. The woman who owned this car felt the need to buy a sticker to indicate that her child had purchased a dog. As I walked to the hospital to retrieve my newborn son, I couldn’t help but think of how appalling that sticker was. The same value rightfully placed upon a human child had been placed upon a dog. Later that day I had to pay the hospital bill. It was substantial. It was not an amount I would pay for veterinary care for my pets. If my pets get sick and need medicine that costs $5,000 to live, I will let them die. I need that $5,000 to support my children and there is no limit to the price I would pay for medicine for them.

https://pulpitandpen.org/2015/08/22/no-dogs-go-to-heaven/

Someone else's happiness is bothering him. Someone loving their granddog is "appalling." He thinks it's wrong for people to pay to give their dogs good medical care. What is his major malfunction? What a cold and empty life he must lead if he's so easily upset and offended.

[hatrack]

1. In the event animals are absent from Heaven, I'll choose the other destination

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. I'm not convinced humans go to heaven or hell.

But if we go to heaven, pets have to be admitted, too.

[overleft]

15. A True Story.

A few years ago we had to have our family member, a big white furry cat, put to sleep. He was like a child to my wife and myself. After his burial, we were heartbroken. The second morning after I arose and being a person of faith knelt and prayed a tearful prayer that he would be taken into the bosum of love. About 30 minutes later my wife got up and came onto the room where I was drinking my morning coffee. She related to me that she had experienced a vision just before arising. She said that she saw what she, in her vision, was an image of Jesus. He was holding our Bub in his arms and each of them had the look of love in their eyes. We lived in a rambling ranch house with me praying on one end and her sleeping on the other. There is no way anyone farther than a few feet from me could have heard my prayer as I pray in private. Take this as you might, but it is the truth. How can I believe any different after this experience.

[OAITW r.2.0]

22. If true, Jesus does a lot of pet holding.

Where does he have time to do anything else?

[renate]

25. I love this!

What a beautiful story... her vision must have been so joyful and so incredibly comforting to you! I'm so glad that you, your wife, Jesus, and Bub had that lovely experience together. Where else but to a place of love could a cat as full of love as Bub go?

[Raine]

29. Beautiful! ♥️ nt

[MFM008]

35. why not

every animal deserves a heaven,
the ones we love deserve a heaven on earth to.

[leftieNanner]

3. These are also the people

who believe that only the "Christians" from their particular little narrow sect are going to heaven. Catholics? No. Methodists? No. Jews? Oh good grief no. They even narrow it down to a very specific church group.

It's so stupid.

I think it was Will Rogers who said "If dogs don't go to Heaven, then I want to go where they go."

[Cyrano]

4. Also, no black, brown or Asian people in heaven

Heaven is for "god-fearing," white christian americans. Every decent person knows that.

Oh, and no cats either.

[keithbvadu2]

12. White Christians figured out how to avoid mingling with the 'coloreds' in heaven.

White Christians figured out how to avoid mingling with the 'coloreds' in heaven.

Old timey gospel -

'We'll all be white in the heavenly light.'

Newer playings have changed that phrase.

[OAITW r.2.0]

24. LOL, why not "we'll all be dark in the heavenly ark"?

[Mme. Defarge]

5. The Reverend Billy Graham would disagree.

https://www.do-dogs-go-to-heaven.com/billy-graham-quote-about-dogs-going-to-heaven/

Billy Graham Quote About Dogs Going To Heaven

When asked, “Do dogs go to Heaven?”, Evangelist Billy Graham answered, “God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in Heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he’ll be there.”

I’m sure my dogs are going to be waiting in Heaven. They never sinned. Why wouldn’t God restore them to his original plan?
And I know I will be there because I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he died for me so that my sins would be forgiven.

[Thomas Hurt]

7. I am suspcious about this whole perfect happiness thing. For God to do that....

for some christofascists God would have to let sinners and heathens in so that they have someone to scold and have an outlet for their sanctimony.

[Rorey]

6. "Christians" like that do others no favors

It's not enough that they're allowed to believe whatever they choose to believe. They also feel compelled to cast judgement on others for their beliefs.

I guess we'll find out what's what when the time comes, but in the meantime, I choose to believe that my pets are waiting for me to join them someday. It gives me comfort, and I'm not going to let a fake "Christian" try to suck that comfort away from me.

[Withywindle]

8. 'If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." - Will Rogers

I'm unfortunately familiar with this line of thinking. It's utterly egomaniacal in the way it posits humans as the only beings with souls and therefore the only ones of any importance whatsoever. It also justifies wanton environmental destruction for greed, because only humans (and let's be real, only white Christian humans) matter.

They have a very selfish and narrow concept of who and what is important. Most of them aren't really capable of extending love to other humans either except the ones that "belong" to them in some way.

[PortTack]

40. Yeah..that..but gotta count horses and cat too

[Withywindle]

49. Oh absolutely!

I'm honestly more a cat person than a dog person myself, but all our animal companions, and the wild ones we love to catch glimpses of, are important. If they're not there, it's not Heaven, period.

[intrepidity]

9. Hope his grandchild grows up to be a veterinarian nt

[Ocelot II]

10. The worst of it is that this person is "appalled" by the fact that

some total stranger put a sticker on her car indicating she's a "dog grandma." Many people (including me) consider their pets to be family members and value their lives accordingly. Why is this such a terrible thing? And I don't know whether dogs go to heaven, but I don't know whether people do, either, or if there even is such a thing. Traditional Christian theology - not all of it, any more - holds that animals don't have souls; my own belief is that if I have a soul so does my cat. Anyhow, if the owner of the car values a dog as a member of her family; if I value my cat as much as I value humans (or at least some of them), that's not for some judgmental d-bag to opine about.

[renate]

16. the guy was also offended when someone at PetSmart asked if he wanted to register his babies

... on an email list.

A couple of years before my wife and I had kids, we went to Pet Smart to buy some name tags for our dogs, James and John. When we checked out the cashier asked us if we’d like to register “our babies” for their mailing list. I politely declined and was silently offended.

Offended!

What an insufferable, whiny, boring, angry little waste of space he is.

[Ocelot II]

21. So why did they give their dogs human names?

Why didn't name them traditional dog names like Spot and Fido, just to be sure nobody thought they had the same status as family members?

I don't think of my cat as my "baby" because she's much more cunning and agile than a baby. She's an adult, and I respect that - she just marches to a different drummer. She's more like an eccentric, slightly demented sibling than a child.

[ZonkerHarris]

11. If there are no dogs it can't really be heaven.

[Binkie The Clown]

13. The really, really good dogs get to reincarnate as cats.! nt

[csziggy]

14. Did you ever find that story?

You may be thinking of the Twilight episode "A Man and His Dog Go to Heaven."

A text version is here: https://www.schnauzers-rule.com/man-dog-heaven.html

Here's the ending clip:

Paramount Plus now owns the Twilight Zone series and is streaming it.

[renate]

20. awww.... that was sweet!

Thank you!

The idea of heaven not letting a dog in is just so absurd. If there's a heaven, it's chock full of dogs!

[csziggy]

23. And cats and other pets and animals that give and accept love

I certainly would not want to live eternity in a place where there are no animals to share it with. But I am an agnostic and will not make a choice on what might be after this life, is anything.

I remember seeing that Twilight episode probably when it was first broadcast. The entire piece is much better than just that clip.

[OAITW r.2.0]

27. It ain't heaven for the raccoons......nt

There is always that damn contradiction of what heaven is.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

31. Raccoons are in heaven according to that TZ clip.

Perhaps they're also happy about the 'coon hunts, like "Clucky" the chicken in this SNL parody?

[OAITW r.2.0]

33. Cluck that.....

do we have to eat animals in heaven? Or can you think Spaghettis and meatballs and not think of the consequences?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

37. It was just a joke from me.

I'm an atheist anyway, but the concept of Heaven implies no pain or suffering to me. So as long as sentient beings don't experience that in such a fantasy-world, I think it could still qualify as Heaven.

Burning in fire could even be fun if it feels good. Then people and other animals could magically reassemble and do it again. Whee!

I liked that Twilight Zone story when I've seen it in the past, but never took it very seriously.

[Xavier Breath]

17. I'm sorry, but Hollywood has already firmly established

where dogs spend the afterlife.

[SheltieLover]

18. Heaven & hell are human constructs

And religion tells people that humans are more important than other species.

[panader0]

50. Thank you. For a minute there I wondered where I was.

[mindem]

19. Spell God backward

and what do you get? Dog. Nuf said.

[LakeArenal]

41. Dog is love. Thanks for reminding me.

[Hotler]

26. Heaven is on earth when your dog is beside you.

Or if you're taking a nap together. Love those doggie snuggles. A toast to all dogs past and present.

[Raine]

28. If there are no dogs (or any animals) in heaven then it wouldn't be heaven 👼

heaven for me is ALL animals being there. If you love animals heaven can't exist for you without them.

[Mariana]

30. Animals do not sin, so there's no reason they would be excluded from Heaven. nt.

[Goodheart]

32. Well, neither will they.

[lame54]

34. Then what makes it heaven?

[PortTack]

36. More of their I'm better cause the Bible gives me dominion over all creatures ...bullshit

[USALiberal]

38. There is no heaven or hell! Nt

[Ocelot II]

39. How do you know?

But that's not really the point, is it? The point is that some judgmental a-hole got his knickers in a twist because somebody he doesn't even know loves her dog like a family member, as if there were actually something wrong with that, and which is none of his business anyhow.

[Raine]

51. Whose t o say, not you and not the "Christian" who claims to have inside information ...

Eventually we'll all find out and if there is heaven animals will be there otherwise it wouldn't be heaven, it would be hell.

[phylny]

42. The Bible mentions animals in Heaven. Furthermore,

my pastor says he "Can't imagine Heaven without our pets."

On several occasions, and it's very rare, I have what I call "visitation" dreams. I had one of my mother, who died in 1988, and one of my friend who died last year. They are different than regular dreams because they are extremely vivid and I can "feel" the person with me.

I have had visitation dreams with each of our deceased dogs. The most profound one was of our dog Jack. I could *feel* his fur in my hands as I petted him when he jumped up and sat on my lap.

I believe there is an afterlife, and I believe we all have different paths to go there. I'm Christian, and that's *my* way. I do not believe it's everyone's way. I just hope my father, who died in January, is hanging out with Scamp, Kelly, Abby, Jack, Sunshine, Jorgi, and Sami, the dogs in our extended family who have gone before us.

[keithbvadu2]

43. Judge not - Heaven's door

Judge not - Heaven's door

I was shocked, confused, bewildered
as I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
who made me sputter and gasp--
the thieves, the liars, the sinners,
the alcoholics, the trash...

There stood the kid from seventh grade
who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
who never said anything nice.

Herb, whom I always thought
was rotting away in hell,
was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
looking incredibly well.

I nudged St. Peter, "What's the deal?
I would love to hear your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.

"And why's everyone so quiet,
so somber? Give me a clue."
"Hush, child," said He, " They're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you!"

[keithbvadu2]

46. Classier

[LakeArenal]

44. Life in heaven without a dog would not be heaven.

I can’t imagine any existence without my dogs.

[Johonny]

45. I learned this in Sunday school roughly age 8 or 9

I was like, but I like my pets more than most people. It was then I started to doubt the wisdom of the church

[apnu]

47. Yes. A nun made me cry with this 'news' when my dog died.

I was in 4th grade. She said: ‘Dogs don’t have souls, they can’t go to heaven’

[Shellback Squid]

48. heaven has more dog souls than human souls