Culture of Fear...

Today's post is a reflection on a quote from theologian Scott Bader-Saye that states, "Following Jesus will mean surrendering the power that masquerades as security in order to love the neighbor and welcome the stranger. It will mean avoiding the safe path in order to pursue the good. But in a culture of fear, we find such risks all the more difficult since our natural inclinations lead us to close in on ourselves when we face danger. How can we maintain the posture of the open hand toward a world that scares us?" Hmmm, "culture of fear", that really describes our world right now, doesn't it?!

The news media preys on that fear of the "other" and the "stranger"; as my teenaged children are often lead to say, "stranger danger". While this is to some degree true, one has to be aware of the dangers of the world - Bader-Saye's words are also true in that fear makes our world close in on us. Fear makes us want to close and lock our doors, to go to our "safe rooms", to limit our interactions to those persons who most resemble us. Fear makes us not want to give anything that we might need later in some dark and scary future that has us pitted against each other.

Spiritual wisdom puts forth a different narrative, however. A story that isn't scary or dark, but one that does challenge our world view. We are called by this spiritual wisdom to welcome the stanger as a neighbor and to love that person as we love ourselves. You can't love someone that you fear - the two emotions are diametrically opposed. Therefore, the call is to put away our fear, to trust in a loving and forgiving God, and to create an open space for the stranger to become a friend. This is very counter-cultural and thus very difficult to do. I believe that this is a reason that we are called to be in a faith community with one another. A safe environment where we can experiment with what it looks and feels like to be neighbors and not strangers. to take two steps forward and three steps back, but to continue to try to be in loving relationship.

This week, look to put away the culture of fear. Look to expand your world view to be more inclusive. This will feel very uncomfortable at first, so be easy with yourself. It will take a while, and not every relationship that you try to form will work out. Pray for strength and wisdom, and I bet that you will ultimately be successful and be able to hold out an open hand.

Peace and grace,
Dan