is this an american thing?

Question

I have been lucky enough to live and experience different cultures,
I have lived in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Holland and United States. While living in Europe I have never meet anyone,not even religious people, telling me if I did not believe or practice Christianity I would burn in hell .Please do not take this as an offence, I am very serious, while here in the States I keep hearing , especially looking at so many posts on yahoo, that if you are not Christian you will burn in hell for the eternity. I have hard time understanding, is this an American thing?
I can assure you when I did mention this to my European friends they were laughing about it. I am not trying to offend anyone I am being very honest. I also do not think using threats of hell is very productive, if your intent is to show love to another human being saying to convert or end up in hell does not seem very loving to me. In any case, I am puzzled by the fact that
while living in Europe no one has ever said that to me. I cannot comprehend why do people say such a thing in the States.

Answer 1

I suppose it comes from our "Puritan" roots. The first pilgrims to come here (European, mainly English anyway) came with the intent of setting up religious communities. That is where we get the idea of freedom of religion- because they were escaping persecution in Europe- but in reality their rules were every bit as (if not more so) religiously tyrannical than where they came from. I guess that rather than dying out through the years, the idea that "our way is the only way and you can go to hell if you don't follow us" has continued and in some ways grown.

Answer 2

This is not a American thing and in my experience as a former atheist, I have experienced from every side of the spectrum what other Christians have to say about the afterlife not just by Americans. I have been coming to section and I have noticed that Christians only tell people on this site about Hell either when provoked to anger or a question was posed such as "I don't believe in God will I go to HELL? or some the most asinine questions posed by unbelievers such as "If I do this or that will I go to hell? They already know this answer and sadly so Christians fall for the trap to be mocked and insulted. Unbelievers were former Christians. Christianity is Not the only one that teaches the after life or what will happen if you don't believe. If people wantt to discuss Christianity then they must know the truth and if people don't won't to hear the truth about Christianity then they have come to the wrong section. God and Hell is very real. *(*

Answer 3

I was told this very thing by someone recently. It wasn't the first time, either. Apparently there are some sects of some religions that believe that it is not enough to live a good, honest life. You have to do specific things, such as make a special public pronouncement in front of a church congregation, admit to your sins, ask forgiveness and so on. After you do these things in front of the congregation, the minister (pastor, whatever that church calls him) asks the church if they accept you, and then you are baptized.

If these things are not done, (this is according to these Baptists who told me I was going to burn, mind you...) then you will burn in hell, because we do not live a life of good works, or a life of purity or anything else that is good. We get to Heaven ONLY by public baptism and by public acceptance by a church congregation.

I am so sorry. I simply cannot believe that I will go to the same Hell as child molesters and rapists and murderers. I have dedicated my life to teaching retarded, autistic children that no one else wants, I volunteer my time in homeless shelters, and I have been a good mother and grandmother for years. There is simply NO WAY that I will spend eternity in a place that is made for people who commit that kind of sin and crime.

But I was told that I would, and I was told that I didn't do enough with my life, no matter how many retarded kids I taught for the rest of my life, or how many homeless and hungry men I got in off the street.

I think the ones that say that are the sinners. It is a sin to tell someone they are not doing enough with their life. They should be spending their time working in a shelter, instead of going out trying to scare people into their church.

Answer 4

As a Christian i must say... I will never say to someone to "convert to Christianity or you'll burn in hell". No, that is what my aunt did. do you know who she said that to? Me. I did not convert to christianity because she said that.. in fact that made me want to almost hate it. I thought that's how people were. She really hurt my feelings, i was like 10 yrs old. I didn't receive Jesus until the age of 14. I have become nicer and close to God. My aunt is too religious, i can't stand being with her when she is in her religious mood.

I prefer to call myself a Christian because i follow Christ.

I hate it when someone says they will go to hell because they are not christian. It's awful to say! Awful to even think about!

And as a human, i will not say that my religion is the right one. No one knows the true path. To me there IS a heaven, to others there isn't, we'll never know until we decease.

Answer 5

It is a strange phenomena that so many Christians (not all) miss interpret their bible and believe that the Good News is everyone is going to hell except the 1% of all humanity that jumped through the religious hoop of the day.

It's our desire for justice. Bad people need to be punished and we are willing to see it done, with both our theology and our bombs.

Answer 6

I hear people saying it, and I live in America. I've never been outside the country, so I didn't realize that people outside America did not say that. I agree that it is a terrible thing to do. If someone converts just to avoid hell, that's not a sincere conversion anyway.

Answer 7

you will rarely hear any thing religious in Oz or NZ.......I think it must be an American thing. America is second last in the world at accepting evolution (last is turkey) and over 80% claim to be christian. Occasionally we'll get an American Evangelist out here screaming "abominations, burn in hell blah blah" and we get a real good laugh out of it.

Answer 8

Many Americans are very hateful, but not all American Christians threaten people with hell. :)

Answer 9

That doesn't happen in Europe? Awesome. I guess it is pretty much an American thing.

Answer 10

Well, really it is not an Anerican thing, it is a Bible thing. If you have a Bible in Europe and read it I am sure you will find it the same as if you read it here in America. I happen to know christians from many different countries, European ones as well, and they believe that hell is a real place. Some of those countries that you mention are as high as 90% Catholic, not Christians so you may never have heard it because they do not believe in hell the same as we do.