"Happy!"

Several years ago a delightful “ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN” “church sign war” circulated online. Supposedly an exchange between churches across the street from each other, running over several days or weeks, it was huge fun even though it was a spoof, as snopes.com pointed out, likely created on an internet church-sign-generator. For one thing, all the signs and scenes are identical, including the white car and red SUV parked down the block behind the “Our Lady of Martyrs” church sign; the same two cars would not have been parked in the same exact spot and relationship for days or weeks on end! OK, so it was a spoof, got me! But I loved it!

In the spoof, the Catholic Church pastor was teasing the Presbyterian pastor across the street, who was taking it quite seriously and became more and more upset and incensed as the series progressed. It elicited interesting discussion in many homes, including mine, some of it serious, some lighthearted. 

Our religion is a strange thing that we humans tend to take seriously and humorlessly and don’t appreciate others poking fun at us; though we may enjoy poking fun at ourselves. Bookshelves are filled with volumes of Jewish Humor compiled by Jewish authors. A generation ago when The Book of Common Prayer was being revised, we Episcopalians loved the “How many Episcopalians does it take to change a lightbulb?” jokes to which there were as many answers as there are answers to “knock-knock, who’s there?” Or the Baptist jokes -- as in “Why won’t Baptists commit adultery standing up?” “Because people might think they’re dancing.” It’s OK for me to remember that one, because half my forebears were Southern Baptist.

We may wonder, “Do dogs go to heaven?” and children often ask a parent that question when a beloved dog or cat dies. Or a goldfish or hamster, because our pets are very dear to us, and may be so dear that we cannot imagine an eternal happiness without them. But the question is raised by God’s children of all ages. Do dogs go to heaven? What’s the answer. 

Better perhaps, what are the answers (plural)? And, they depend.

There are dogmatic churches in which the theological authority prescribes not only the answers, but the questions. (This is not for me). A church that officiously and grandly takes it upon itself to ask “Which creatures have souls and which do not?” is not unlikely to proclaim that only humans have souls and therefore only humans qualify (or disqualify themselves) for heaven. My preference is to do my own thinking, thank you very much.

In a church that leaves it to each individual not only to work out the answers but to raise the questions, the pastor who is asked “Do dogs go to heaven?” likely would respond, “What do you think, what do you hope, what do you want to believe?” Because whether beloved pets -- dogs -- cats -- gerbils -- go to heaven may be very important to a bereaved person; and may be just as much a matter of faith as other tenets of doctrine. Here is where comes the scriptural answer to the question. Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” My faith, my things hoped for may be different from my neighbor’s, yet is just as valid. And things not seen may include Love, which Saint Paul tells us (1 Corinthians 13:13) is even greater than Faith and Hope. So if my faith, what I hope for but cannot yet see, includes enormous Love -- Happy -- my dog who grew up with us and whose death so devastated me when I was a teen -- Happy greeting me, leaping up and down joyfully, jumping up on me and licking my face exuberantly as I walk through the gates of heaven, what’s that to you?!! It certainly sounds like heaven to me.

And this time I won’t say, “Down, Happy!”

Tom+