Sorry for the generalization, but why do the people who always claim to be God’s servants always turn out to be the ones with the most horrible catches?
As if our social media hadn’t had enough of personalities suddenly proving problematic, another seemed to anger Filipinos online after her questionable statement about “unbelievers.” Yes, we are specifically talking about Joyce Pring.
On her October 5, 2022 episode of her Spotify podcast titled “Adulting with Joyce Pring,” the latter part of the episode featured her talking to Wil Dasovich about “Unboxing Christianity.” For context — and as many people may have already known — Pring considers herself a devout Christian and says she’s a “Christ-saved sinner.”
The episode, according to Joyce herself, aims to address “probing questions about God, how Christianity is her belief system, and whether she should recommend Wil go out with his Christian friends.” While nothing seems to be amiss in all of this, there was one specific clip from the episode that went viral, which was Wil asking Joyce to say whether or not a “non-believer can go to heaven.”
And boy, were people so strongly divided on this topic on social media. Twitter and Reddit went on fire after seeing this clip.
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
People were quick to call out Joyce Pring for her hypocrisy, especially applauding some of her Tweets and the kind of people she follows.
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
However, there are those Christians who also had their fair share of feelings about it.
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Going through Twitter
Say what you want, but religious extremism in any form is dangerous. While it is undeniable that what she said is written in scripture and established in doctrine, the way she perceives it is definitely wrong. Her point of view is practically medieval, and she is not alone in this case. There are countless other people who feel the same way about being an unbeliever, and that is not correct.
Being narrow-minded and uncompromising at this time is not proof of the strength of his belief, but of how he misunderstood it. Let’s not forget that the Bible and all of its teachings are a product of their time – the ideologies considered right in the days of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Jesus Christ are no longer the same in 2022.
Being an unbeliever doesn’t send you to hell, by the way. Stop putting morality and religion on the same pedestal; they are in no way related to each other. A person might follow a certain religion that has love and forgiveness as the main pillars of its teachings, and yet support a person who has supported unjust killings and crimes.
A person’s morality should not even be based solely on his religion, because religion is just a belief system established by people in history to relieve man during his lifetime. What is correct in theological doctrines may also not be correct morally.
Moreover, is there even evidence of a “heaven” and a “hell”? Of course the Bible says there will be a day of judgment and Jesus will be solely responsible for deciding who will go to heaven, stay in purgatory and burn in hell, but why are there those Christians who are adamant on judging others as if they were Jesus themselves?
Who are we to say that any non-believer goes to hell, when there are also other religions to consider? This is the problem with religion – each of them tries to assert themselves as the one who is right.
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