Would you give up your place in heaven...

When I realized we were supposed to believe the fairy tales we were being told in Sunday School with comics and coloring books , I read the Bible through for the first time.My dad was a union steward, so my first thought was that our contract wasn't worth the paper it was written on, since the Boss could just tear it up, and often did.I read about the second Job Junior and wondered how he slept at night. Perhaps he'd never heard of double-or-nothing.I decided the Bible was a collection of fables with no connection to any nonhuman power. I'd seen enough real world by then to know the cruelty and betrayal in it smelled entirely human.I was disinvited to Sunday School. The minister told me I should go home and think about whether or not I wanted to burn in Hell forever. I told him that if God and the elite partied in Heaven while billions of people were tortured forever, I wanted no part of it. I thought he was going to hit me, for he was a Godly man.I still feel that way. Tormenting my brothers and sisters is a deal-breaker.

Weren't you once involved with a union, Phat? Would you go to your membership and say, "The Boss wants to give me a major bonus if I fire you guys. I love ya and all, but...you understand"?Is it loving people more than God if we do as were told, and treat all people as if they were Him? Loving them as ourselves? Greater love hath no man...Perhaps you could make a case against an idolatrous regard for an individual, which is what the scripture you cite seems to be about. But loving people and treating each one the way we would God is about as scriptural as you're gonna get.Edited by Omnivorous, : No reason given.