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ABC TV Looks At Heaven

By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service (ANS)

NEW YORK (ANS) -- An upcoming ABC TV special promises to take an in depth look at the subject of heaven.

Anchored by Barbara Walters, and titled “Heaven. Where Is It? How Do We Get There?” a news release from ABC says the program will explore the meaning of heaven with religious leaders of the major faiths, scientists, people who say they believe in heaven because they’ve been there, and celebrities who are vocal about their beliefs. Show producers even talk with terrorists.

According to the news release, Walters takes viewers on a journey around the world – to India, Israel and throughout the United States. She interviews people of different religious and scientific beliefs, each with strong opinions about the afterlife. They discuss their visions of heaven, what happens to the body, and why it is important to believe in heaven.

Cardinal Theodore McCerrick, the Catholic Archbishop of Washington, says in the program, the news release states, that the purpose of life “is to come to the end of your life at peace with the Lord so that you may find an eternal happiness in heaven…This life is not what we’re made for. We’re made for heaven. We’re made for the future.”

A Jewish rabbi comments in the show, “The purpose of life is to live a decent life… and that you do it for its own sake, not for getting a reward.” Rabbi Neil Gilman from the New York Jewish Theological Seminary adds, “There is a tremendous emphasis in our tradition about what you do with yourself in your lifetime here on earth.”

Reverend Calvin Butts, Pastor of New York’s famed Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, who says he has seen heaven, tells Walters in the show, the news release states, that heaven is “eternal joy and happiness because you are at one with God.”

Walters traveled to the Himalayan Mountains to visit the mystical home of a self-described reincarnated Buddha, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who says, the ABC news release states, that the purpose of life is to be happy, and that you can accomplish that by “warm heartedness.”

He says heaven “is the best place to further develop the spiritual practice… for Buddhists the final goal is not just to reach there, but to become Buddha. (It’s) not the end,” and he tells Walters that you can come back as an animal. “If someone do very bad, badly… kill or steal… could be born in an animal body.”

Walters also talks to longtime Buddhist actor Richard Gere, who says, “I don’t think necessarily heaven and hell happen in some other life. I think it’s right now.”

The promise of heaven plays a central role in the lives of the National Association of Evangelicals President Pastor Ted Haggard, and all other born again Christians. They believe the Bible states that if you are not a born again Christian, you have no assurance of going to heaven.

Haggard says, the news release states, that “Jesus Christ guarantees eternal life to anybody that’ll follow him… The purpose of life is to glorify God and go to heaven… ’cause heaven is our home.”

Atheists are also given their say in the special program. “No, heaven doesn’t exist, hell doesn’t exist. We weren’t alive before we were born, and we’re not going to exist after we die. I’m not happy about the fact that that’s the end of life, but I can accept that and make my life more fulfilling now, because this is the only chance I have,” says Ellen Johnson, president of the American Atheists Society.

Islamic scholar Feisal Abdul Rauf says there is sex in heaven. He comments in the show, the news release states, that “The real life is the next life… and based upon how we live this life, it determines where we shall be in the next. We are told we will be in comfortable homes, reclining on silk couches… so we’re given the delights of sex, the delights of wine, the delights of food with all of their positive things without their negative aspects.”

Terrorists are also given the opportunity to speak. According to the news release, Jihad Jarrar, of Islamic Jihad, who is incarcerated in an Israeli prison for a failed suicide bombing, tells Walters that only Muslims will go to heaven and “the reason I chose a martyrdom operation” was to spend an eternity in paradise. He says he was taught that “everything good is in the garden in paradise,” and that “the lord promised the martyr who lost his life and lost the world on earth, that he promised him these 72 women in paradise as honor, as respect for him.”

The special also explores the science of heaven, asking why faith comes easily to some and eludes others.

As part of the show, Walters talks to expert Dr. Dean Hamer, author of “The God Gene,” and a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health. She asks if there is really a “God gene” that affects people’s level of spirituality. The special also looks at studies of the brain itself, to see if it undergoes unusual changes when someone is deeply involved in spiritual experiences. These studies are done by Dr. Andrew Newberg, a radiologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Walters also examines the phenomenon of the near-death experience, and asks what happens when you journey to the other side of death and back.

British psychologist Dr. Susan Blackmore, who has spent decades searching for a scientific explanation, says in the show, “When the oxygen levels fall in the brain…you get massive over-activity in the brain… I think there is a true transformation, but not because you’ve been to heaven.”

Dr. Diane Morrissey says in the show, the news release states, that she saw the “white light of god” when she was electrocuted. “My near death experience changed everything about me… there is not a single experience on earth that could ever be as good as being dead.”

Walters also looks at how you tell children what happens to their loved ones when they die and whom you see when you arrive in heaven. She talks to such people as Maria Shriver, author of a children’s book on heaven, and Mitch Albom, author of “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” for their take on the afterlife.

The program will air on Tues. Dec. 20 from 9.00-11.00 p.m. on the ABC Television Network It will also be released on DVD through www.ABCNEWS.com with extended interviews and bonus features.

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. He has five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jgreynalds@aol.com. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A black and white JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.

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