MINISTERIAL MUSINGS: "Is Hitler in Hell?"
The Rev. John Tamilio III
“To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven,” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“Is Adolf Hitler in Hell?” This is a question that inevitably comes up when I talk to people about God’s grace. If God is all-loving and all-forgiving, why would the Creator of Heaven and Earth condemn anyone to the fires of Perdition? Is there even a Hell?I think there is…and I think there isn’t. Let me explain before I answer the Hitler query.
Most of what we believe about Hell does not come from Scripture. Dante Alighieri, John Milton, and Geoffrey Chaucer have imbued western history with more images of fire and brimstone than the Old and New Testaments combined.
That said, I believe that Hell is separation from God. It is to live in constant fear — to live a life of complete isolation, because one cannot see the grace of God unfolding in the world, especially in the midst of the violence, dehumanization, and chaos that breaks human existence.
Sin is very real. As the Irish poet Seamus Heaney wrote, “Human beings suffer, / They torture one another, / They hurt and get hard.” Even though I do not believe that this existence is Hell, as many an existentialist is wont to say, it can be at times. Humanity is endowed with freewill. With that freewill, we sometimes choose to do horrible things to one another.
Now, back to Der Führer.
Adolf Hitler is clearly the modern epitome of evil. He embodied everything that we associated with Satan. If there is a Hell, then I would think that he is not only in it, but that he is running it: along with the likes of Caligula, Ivan the Terrible, and Pol Pot.
But isn’t it great that I do not have to decide such things? Isn’t it wonderful that I am not the judge of human souls? That’s God’s job. I don’t want it.
I do know this, though. In his Letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul said, "nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:39, NRSV). That brings me great comfort. I screw up, too. A lot. There are times when my words and actions are a blatant (though not necessarily intentional) rejection of God.
Isn’t it amazing that God loves even me in spite of my shortcomings? If that is the case, then God certainly loves all of creation: those whose sins might be more egregious than mine, and those who are modern day saints.
In the end, I would like to think that enemies and friends will sit down together at the great heavenly banquet, shoulder-to-shoulder. At that table, all the wrongs we have done to one another are cast aside. They fall from us like scales.
And then, the Holy One (the Host of the meal), will say to us, “Do you not understand? Have you not figured it out? This is what I will for all of creation, regardless of what separates you from one another. I want all people of all ages, races, cultures, tongues, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, and classes to bask together in the light of mutual love and respect.”
That, to me, is Heaven.
Hell is anything that counters that covenantal connectedness.
The Rev. John Tamilio III is the Senior Pastor of Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland. He and his wife Susan live with their three children in Lakewood.