LETTER: A hell of a question for the church
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Your support makes all the difference.From Fr Cary Dobbie
Sir: My starting point in theology has always been the belief that the best clue to the nature of God lies in my own.
Put simply, I cannot and will not believe in a God who is more unpleasant than I am. If I do not will the damnation of any soul, not even that of Adolf Hitler, then the notion of some sort of everlasting holocaust is so at variance with what I know of myself, as to render it wholly unbelievable of the God who said: "Fear not, I am the first and the last". I recall a piece of "grave humour" which summed it up along the following lines:
Here lies Martin Elginbrod,
Have mercy on my soul, Lord God,
As I would, were I Lord God,
And you were Martin Elginbrod.
Why will people make God nastier than themselves?
Yours sincerely,
Cary Dobbie
Chaplain
Christ's Hospital
Horsham,
West Sussex
13 January
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