Reared in Safety and Security - Why Now So Fearful?

A good many Americans have been reared in safety and security.

But for reasons beyond my grasp, a huge industry has grown up in the land promoting fear - everything from the "fear of the stranger" to "home-invasions," the fear of which far exceeds what the stats might support.

From the constant parade of murder and mayhem on the local news to politicians who can see a terrorist under every bed, we're inundated with the words of fear.

It's making a lot of us desperate, and angry ... because fear, if sustained, becomes anger.

Fearful of so many things: terrorism, criminals, Muslims, "illegal" immigrants, anger is growing among certain segments of the population, and that's the stuff of fascism. Sustained fear and then anger weakens moral and spiritual sensibilities, reduces our capacity for compassion and kindness and stilts our vision of the world. Sooner or later, most everyone and everything becomes a threat. The ability to distinguish between reality and imagination is lost. And, makes one a consumer of "safety-devices" - everything from home security systems to white-supremacy movements.

In such a state of mind, we either move toward a highly defensive posture, a state of high-alert that saps our energy and deranges us ... or we grow up, shall I say, and take an honest assessment of our situation and ask the question: Just how safe, or not, am I?

And for those who Christians, it might well be helpful to remember what the angels frequently say: "Fear not!"

Fear, in and of itself, has some helpful dimensions - like, fight or flight, but there are other options, too.

Like the firefighters who are really afraid, but neither fight nor flee ... but run toward the conflagration in order to help others.

Jesus faced down his fears and eschewed anger, and went to Jerusalem in spite of Peter's advice to stay away from this hotbed of intrigue and danger.

Fight is certainly what many of us are choosing, turning mind and home into an "armed fortress."

Flight is a huge spiritual option for many - sort of like Medieval theologians debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin while ignoring the hell in which most of the serfs lived.

But the third option: running toward the conflagration, and doing so with a certain amount of trust in the love of God and a sense of reality - that it may end badly if I go there, but I'll not run away, nor will I engage in needless conflict with adversaries.

Because a frightened, angry, person, is not likely to be of much help or hope to anyone.

Indeed, Jesus heals the blind and and comforts the afflicted. Here's where he's needed - people desperate for help and hope. And when challenged by his enemies, chooses non-engagement.

Those who follow Jesus (unlike Peter who didn't want to face the possibility of his own death when Jesus proclaims his own death) will move toward the conflagration with caution, of course, but with a determination to pay whatever the price might be for love, which, after all, casts out all forms of fear (1 John 4.18).