In evangelical communities, there is often a strong tendency to treat almost anything controversial other than the gospel as if it is trivial, either in itself or by comparison to salvation. Issues like egalitarianism or annihilationism, both of which the Bible teaches as clear as language can, are either rejected on the basis of contra-Biblical assumptions and subjective preference or called minor in their importance. Annihilationism is a key example of something with very prominent, significant ramifications for justice, something evangelicals like to generally say they care about up until they actually have to avoid making assumptions or change their worldview or behaviors. Justice, of course, is dictated by God's nature according to the Bible, so it is not as if the nature of hell and cosmic punishment for sin could be trivial in any way on the Christian worldview.
In a church context or just the context of interacting with Christians (and interacting with non-Christians when it comes to evangelism and explaining Christian philosophy), however, there is an additional weight to believing in fallacies and contradictions and then trivializing the whole thing when someone else actually rightly objects, perhaps even on the basis of a true rationalistic refutation. Annihilationism does inherently connect with central moral ideas, which in turn directly relate to how we should or should not treat other people, which is inherently connected to God's nature, and so on. Evangelical churches are supposedly about pursuing clarity on such matters. To trivialize it conflicts with what evangelicals otherwise are likely to say they want!
The nature of punishment in hell according to Biblical theology is even directly related to the salvation that evangelicals asininely confuse for the single most important philosophical and theological matter of all--something that is not only false, but that is not even logically possible [1]. In other words, this fact could never be or have been any different even inside the context of Christian theology. People too stupid to understand the more primary aspects of general philosophy and Christian theology or too frightened to forsake petty traditions will not understand this. Evangelicals routinely pretend like annihilationism is just not worth all the "division" it could bring to the church, or like it is simply not a particularly important or foundational doctrine one way or another, whether or not it really is what the Bible teaches. Not only does the Bible plainly teach annihilationism [2], but minor is something that justice and God's nature are not. Salvation from hell, in fact, cannot even be possible apart from hell, so it is clear which is the more crucial theological concept, and it is not salvation, nor could it have been.
If someone is stupid enough to believe in contradictions, or believe in anything at all on the basis of assumptions (which can be rooted in traditions or consensus or emotionalism), he or she cannot deserve to be treated as an intellectual equal. If someone is stupid enough to think it is morally obligatory to not "bring division" in the church by focusing on the exact nature of morality and hell in the Biblical worldview, which are tied to the nature of the deity that evangelicals falsely think they understand as he is presented in Scripture, he or she does not understand core parts of Christianity and, in turn, cannot deserve to be treated as a moral or intellectual equal. They have become self-deluded into believing that there is a moral obligation to not treat significant issues of justice as if they are really morally important, which at its heart is a blatant contradiction.
This idiotic idea that a personally convenient salvation from hell could possibly be equally or more important is of course what probably drives most evangelicals to think that the gospel has more depth, centrality, and gravity than the truth about two extremely different ideas about the Christian hell. The Biblical deity of annihilationism and the heretically misconceived deity of standard eternal conscious torment are so vastly different that they would have irreconcilably conflicting natures; this cannot be an issue of small importance within the context of true Christianity. Annihilationism is essential in Christianity and is in fact demonstrably more essential than salvation itself is, for justice is obligatory and mercy is not, and justice can exist without a deity being merciful, but a deity cannot be merciful without first being just.
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