At the Heart of Christian Doctrine
According to traditional Christian theology, the message is clear: believe that God’s son died on a cross for your sins, or face eternal torment in hell. This isn’t symbolic. This isn’t figurative. This is taught as divine truth – that the key to salvation is belief, and unbelief comes with infinite consequence.
To many of us raised within this framework, the doctrine was called “love.” But as I’ve grown older, peeled back the layers, and thought for myself, I’ve realized something chilling: this isn’t love. This is coercion.
Let me put it another way.
Imagine a man approaches you on the street. He tells you that his son was born with wings and can fly. He’s passionate, tearful, sincere. You smile awkwardly and try to walk away.
But before you can, he raises a gun and says: “If you don’t believe me… I’m going to blow your head off.”
Now pause. Really pause.
What would we call that?
Delusion? Terrorism? A threat so absurd that it borders on madness?
So why is it that when religion replaces the gun with hellfire, and the threat of death with eternal suffering, we suddenly call it “holy”? Why is it acceptable – even sacred – when the ultimatum is delivered from a pulpit instead of a street corner?
The core message hasn’t changed: Believe what I say… or suffer forever.
That’s not free will. That’s spiritual blackmail.
You might be told that God doesn’t want you to go to hell. That He’s giving you a “choice.” But a choice made under duress is no choice at all. Ask any psychologist. Ask any judge. Coerced decisions aren’t legitimate – not in law, not in life, and certainly not in love.
If God’s love comes with a flaming footnote, then we must ask: Is it love… or is it leverage?
For me, this was the beginning of the end – the moment when the facade started to crack. The moment I realized that belief rooted in fear is not belief at all. It’s survival. It’s appeasement. It’s the bride with a gun to her head, told to smile for the wedding photo.
And I, for one, refuse to keep smiling.