I have this friend, a Baptist pastor, and we're very close. Or so I thought. But last week she assured me that my Jewish cousin, who died at the age of 30, is in hell.
Then, last night, we were talking on the phone and watching the convention. She says, "I don't know what all the fuss is about. It doesn't matter how people vote or what the parties do. Whoever God wants to be president will win."
Me: What?! Her: I believe in the sovereignty of God. Nothing happens without God's approval.
So, I asked her if she thought God wanted Hitler to be Chancellor of Germany. Yep, that's exactly what she thinks. I pointed out that more than 9 million people died because "God wanted Hitler to be chancellor of Germany." Then she told me about some friend of hers who is in "Jews for Jesus", whose family fled Germany during the Holocaust. If he hadn't come here, he wouldn't have converted to Christianity, and "led so many people to Christ". :wow: 9 million dead people=one Jew for Jesus. Oh, yeah. That's a god I could worship.
I feel like I never even knew her. When we were serving in the same town, we had lunch together like everyday. We'd take care of each other's dogs when we went out of town. We got our churches to do VBS and stuff together. How could I never have known that she had these wacky ideas?
Sometimes I think that growing up in a progressive family in a progressive church didn't really prepare me for the real world. There are some REAL crazies walking around loose out there.
Still, the hardest part is her pronouncing that my cousin is in hell. I think that's a little above her pay grade, to use Barack's term. Geez.
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