Thank you so much for writing this. I like your concept of a "buffet of ideas" that the viewer can pick and choose from. This has always been my problem with Catholicism. The Catholic Church strongly espouses the concept of free will; we go to heaven or hell through our own actions, and are free to reject or accept Christ at any time in our lives. (Predestination is more of a Protestant ideal.) However, even though Catholics are encouraged to choose the right path, it is the Church itself (embodied by the Pope) that *dictates* right and wrong. There's no room for dissent, among those of us who believe that birth control is a valid choice, or that gays and lesbians are right to love each other.
If there is a hell or heaven, BtVs and AtS seem to say, we make it ourselves... metaphorically speaking.... It's only through trying to make the world better for others, not ourselves, that we earn our souls' final reward. And one's own conscience is the real final judge.
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Date: 2005-01-01 07:48 pm (UTC)If there is a hell or heaven, BtVs and AtS seem to say, we make it ourselves... metaphorically speaking.... It's only through trying to make the world better for others, not ourselves, that we earn our souls' final reward. And one's own conscience is the real final judge.
Amen, sister.