(AgapePress) - A former president of the Southern Baptist Convention is lamenting the fact that many evangelical pastors today are ignoring the doctrine of hell.

Dr. Paige Patterson is president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The senior professor of theology says he regrets that many pastors have become "theological wimps" when it comes to preaching the doctrine of eternal punishment.

"The current fad in Christianity today in America is to be sure that everybody leaves church feeling really good," Patterson says, "and with that whole 'user-friendly' motif coming to play, we've sacrificed almost any part of the gospel -- but certainly the doctrine of eternal punishment because that won't make anybody feel very good to hear about that. So it's just not politically correct to do it."

Patterson says the Bible speaks more about hell than it does about heaven, and often warns of impending judgment. "It speaks of a rich man who went to hell and in torment lifted up his eyes and prayed for a drop of water," he says.

"We can always, I suppose, hope that something different would be the case. But in fact, if we're going to follow Jesus ... then [we] have to take Jesus' view of it -- and Jesus' view is very clear about eternal punishment."

Patterson says far too many evangelical pastors are ignoring the doctrine of hell, and have departed from the faith once delivered to the saints. The result of that, he says, will be an increasing pluralism that ignores Jesus' statement that "Broad is the way and wide is the gate that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat."

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