April 13, 2014:

Palm Sunday Ponderings By A Pilgrim Pastor

“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself...”

      In a recent column in the Times Free Press, your friend and mine, David Cook, commented on the proposed new gun law in Georgia that would allow guns to be carried into almost every part of the community:  schools, government buildings, restaurants, bars, and churches.  He asked himself what has happened in our society to foster such a public gun push.  He then answers his own question.

      “It’s fear, our growing, gnawing national fear.  It’s become the national condition.  When we see the world as a threatening place, then our priorities turn inward.  We arm ourselves.  We hoard.  We scapegoat.  We watch zombies on TV and await the apocalypse.  We trade our faith for a handgun class.”

      David then called attention to a significant new book, “Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear,” by theologian Scott Bader-Sayre, a professor at the University of Scranton.  He carefully examines the ways that fear alters our spiritual selves.

      “Disordered and excessive fear has significant moral consequences.  It fosters a set of shadow virtues, including suspicion, preemption and accumulation, which threaten traditional Christian virtues such as hospitality, peacemaking and generosity.  When our moral lives are shaped by fear, and safety is worshiped as the highest good, we are tempted to make health and security the primary justifications for right action.”

      In a nation consumed by fear, our main desire becomes safety and security that override other desires — democracy, justice and peace — sending us reeling into a distorted America where others around us are seen as threats and potential enemies, especially if they are “different” than we are.  Decent community life is impossible when we are afraid of each other.

      Is there any way out of this looming disaster?  While this may seem like a naive suggestion to you, when someone tells you about the fears that call for more and more guns everywhere, share with them your faith that there is a better way, the way of peace and nonviolence taught by saints such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and, yes, Jesus of Nazareth.  Is this just sentimental foolishness?  Or after centuries of violence and warfare, might it be a wisdom that can overcome our fears still waiting to be tried?

Love,

Pastor Dave