Ted Turner on Hell: Flippancy + irreverence is just obnoxious.

Ted Turner (Wikimedia Commons)

I once heard a visiting minister at Bethel Baptist Church in Erie, PA (back when it was at 737 E 26th St) say that some folks think hell is nothing but a big beer party and all their friends will be there. I thought that was nonsense, no one could think that way, even if they were exaggerating, it just bends the metaphor too far.

Then I hear Ted Turner quoted as saying this (heard it on the radio, then looked it up because it sounded so absurd):

"... heaven is going to be perfect. And I don't really want to be there...Those of us that go to hell, which will be most of us in this room, most journalists are certainly going there. (Laughter). Anyway, because they are not that religious because they know too much. But, when we get there we'll have a chance to make things better because hell is supposed to be a mess. And heaven is perfect. Who wants to go to a place that's perfect? Boring, boring." (Laughter)" 

Quoted by by D. Min. Theology Rev. M.L. Johnson in From Heaven To You > ; see also Google Books page >

I really had to think about why that bothered me. Was it the irreverence? Partially, but not entirely. I think it was more the flippancy, which, combined with irreverence, is just obnoxious, like a kindergarten fart joke.

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My reaction has nothing to do with whether hell is real or not, or if Ted Turner is right or wrong. His remarks simply lend no insight, funny or not, and trivialize the beliefs of others who work with him, for him, or tune into his Superstation every day and drive ad revenue.

There was a time when Turner made an effort to be associated with family values, but a little googling paints him as "a womanizer who once bragged about his photographs of nude women, yet deplored the decline of family values and nudity and sex on film and TV; a man who was sometimes careful and guarded, but then embarrassingly blunt or crassly to-the-point." Source >

Folks who try to one-up God often seem to misunderstand the foundation for their humor, and so substitute one-liners and applause for wit.

[2014-11-14]

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