NEW YORK, March 4, 2011: (by Erik Eckholm) A new book by one of the country’s most influential evangelical pastors, challenging traditional Christian views of heaven, hell and eternal damnation, has created an uproar among evangelical leaders, with the most ancient of questions being argued in a biblical hailstorm of Twitter messages and blog posts.<\/p>\n
In a book to be published this month, the pastor, Rob Bell, known for his provocative views and appeal among the young, describes as ‘misguided and toxic’ the dogma that ‘a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better.’<\/p>\n
In a video, Mr. Bell pointedly asks whether it can be true that Gandhi, a non-Christian, is burning in hell.<\/p>\n
Such statements are hardly radical among more liberal theologians, who for centuries have wrestled with the seeming contradiction between an all-loving God and the consignment of the billions of non-Christians to eternal suffering. But to traditionalists they border on heresy, and they have come just at a time when conservative evangelicals fear that a younger generation is straying from unbendable biblical truths.<\/p>\n