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Filmmaker asks whether hell is real, and who goes there

By editorsub1 on October 17, 2012 7:02 am in Oddly Enough / 7 comments

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It’s something that has haunted Kevin Miller ever since he became a Christian at age 9 at summer camp: hell.

Now 41, Miller says he has no idea what happens to people after death. But as a child, he believed that some people were going to hell, and he feared that it could be him, or his parents, or his siblings.

“It’s a horrible place for a kid to be,” Miller said in an interview shortly after the recent release of his new film, “Hellbound?”

“That fear has percolated underneath my faith for my entire life.”

“Hellbound?” — which cost $350,000 to produce — is opening in more than 20 theaters across North America, and will continue to add venues in the coming months. Filming coincided with the 2011 release of evangelical pastor Rob Bell’s controversial book, “Love Wins,” which questions conventional views of hell and landed Bell on the cover of Time magazine.

Though Bell declined to appear in “Hellbound?” Miller said the book helped pave the way for a film. “All of a sudden it brought everybody out of the woodwork who had a dog in the fight. … It helped show what a lightning rod this is.”

The questions posed by “Hellbound?” — does hell exist and if so, who goes there? — are no longer so anxiety-producing for Miller, a Canadian writer and director who has worked on projects with both religious and nonreligious themes, and briefly played Superman villain Lex Luthor on the television show “Smallville.”

Miller’s faith journey has taken him through Mennonite and evangelical churches to his current Anglicanism, where he embraced a gentle view of hell before he made the film: universalism, which doesn’t consider hell a place of eternal torment and holds that all souls will be saved. [More]

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7 Comments

Treva Morones says:

April 13, 2013 at 2:53 am

Leaping onto the television landscape in Fall 2001, Smallville follows the exploits of a young Clark Kent in the years leading up to his emergence as the beloved Superman. Following a slew of TV renditions of the character’s life since the comic book first appeared, Smallville sets itself apart by focusing on the lesser discussed niche of Clark’s earliest developmental days. Superb casting and consistent writing have combined to make Smallville one of the more popular shows on television (especially in international markets), making the show one of the WB network’s most successful creations to date.;

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joseph Francis says:

October 19, 2012 at 9:46 am

There are so many references in scripture by Jesus re: hell. We all struggle to understand spiritual realities that are so beyound our human world. What help me is St. Augestine’s saying, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you O Lord.” Augustine realized that we were created by God, for God and that we will have no rest within us until we return to God. Hell is finally realizing this, seeing God, and knowing that you can never have this. In a human example, our bodys must have food. Take away food and we experience pain and finally death. An Atheist friend of mine said it so well, It is better to go through life believing that there is a God, heaven and hell and when dying finding out there’s no God, heaven or hell, than dying and finding out there it a God, heaven and oh Shirt, HELL.

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Roy Banes says:

October 17, 2012 at 5:57 pm

Well, folks, to all of you that don’t believe there is a hell, I’ll quote what Padre Pio, now St. Pio said to a person that told him, he didn’t believe there was a hell. Padre Pio answered, “well you’ll find out when you get there.

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- Catholic Lady says:
  
  October 17, 2012 at 8:53 pm
  
  Living in a skeptical age, some might doubt whether Hell exists. Hell is real both by revelation and reason. Simply the number of scriptural references, especially in the New Testament, is evidence of it’s existence (Mt 5:22, 8:12,l3:42, 18:8-9, 25:45, Mk 9:43-46, Lk 3:17, 13:27-28, Rom 2:8, Jas3:6, Rev 19:20,20:18, 21:8). Reason can establish; that human beings have an immortal soul, and in justice, punishments due in this life, but remain undelivered should be visited upon the soul after death.
  
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Jim Michalski, S.J. says:

October 17, 2012 at 3:43 pm

I agree with 1st sentence of “Comment 1″ that hell is not a place, but a state of being – a state of being w/o God, w/o love. And heaven is the opposite state. I believe in a hell in order to legitimate freedom. Our freedom, one of our unique gifts, is given in order to ultimately chose a life with God. If there is a choice, a chance of not choosing God, than there must be a hell; otherwisw freedom is a joke and we have to love God. This would make a joke of all three: God, freedom and hell.

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- Recovering Catholic says:
  
  October 17, 2012 at 6:31 pm
  
  Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz learned, the power to transform our spirits and choose freedom (love unconditionally) is within us but we have to learn this for ouselves — nobody could have told us so.
  
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Recovering Catholic says:

October 17, 2012 at 2:10 pm

It is my opinion that hell certainly does exist; however, it is not a place, but a state of being. If a person has never learned to love unconditionally and thus not freed their spirit, they will die to a hellish reality, because they are holding onto the spirit of unforgiveness, grudges, feelings of self pity, and the like (e.g., selfishness).

If one has learned in this Earth-bound life to love unconditionally, and as a result, has freed up their spirit, when they die, that spirit of loving unconditionally goes with them when they pass over and they will go to Heaven.

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