The Fear Monster

A few years back I used to write articles for Rochester, NY's City newspaper. I thought I'd republish a few here and see what gronks...

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. – John 14:27

When I was a child I marveled at the prospect of someday being big – courageous, strong and free of all fear, like Mom and Dad. The dark depths under the bed, the eerie silence behind the closet door, even the twisted shadows reaching through the window held no power over them. Life without fear held such promise!

At age 42, I’m still hoping to someday be bigger than my fears. Like most of us, I merely traded my childhood fears for mortgage monsters and well-being ghouls that sometimes overwhelm, robbing me of sleep far more aggressively than did any imagined threat of my youth. I haven’t learned my lesson: It is not a monster I fear; my fear IS the monster.

Fear is the opponent of peace. It constricts the flow of blood to our brains and narrows our thinking. It is the basis of all anger, crime and conflict.

Peace as the world gives – usually defined as the mere absence of war – is fearfully inadequate. Instead, let us with our children embrace a higher personal standard: peace as the absence of fear. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not let them be afraid, that wonderful man said. Examine and understand. Cast enlightenment on your darkest fears. It is what fear does to us in the darkest recesses of our hearts that leads to all that goes terribly wrong on this beautiful planet among these beautiful people.

Work through your nightmares and our world sleeps better tonight.

After a dozen years in parish ministry, I can tell you I am not interested in adding to the cultural noise faced by the faithful and faithless alike . Still, if I'm going to have an online ministerial presence, it necessarily has to feature the give-and-take so prominent at my church. So here goes.

I'm a Christian... which is a good thing if I am going to pastor a Christian church. But the Christian I am resists much of what is promoted as "Christian" in American society:

• I find no conflict between the brilliant theory of evolution and the beautiful truths of Genesis.
• Artist-renderings of Jesus wrapped in an American flag (or any other) make me want to hurl.
• I am equally at home with Judeo-Christian, Buddhist, Confucian, Quranic and Sufi texts, though I find the Rig-veda a tough slog and the Book of Mormon just plain goofy (sorry, Mormon brothers and sisters -- it's me, not you... just being honest here in the shadow of Hill Cumorah).
• I think insisting on particular genitalia for God is goofy, too, but I take no offense at pronouns.
• I am too busy working in the trenches to look for Jesus coming on the clouds.

I guess I take my God at my God's word: With the most common Biblical directive from God, messiah and angels being "fear not," I find no place for fear in faith. This is borne out for me in my experiences in the presence of God. In those blessed moments when I feel closer than close to God, the very first thing I feel is a flushing away of all fear.

The physiological response to fear includes the constricting of blood flow to the brain, the narrowing of perception and the predominance of our most primitive impulses...definitely not the way I want to encounter the Holy One, you know?

Jesus told the patriarchal society of his day to call God Daddy. Disarm the dread... whatever it takes, just get yourself as closely aligned and harmonized as possible to all that is true, pure, good and loving.

So that's me. What about you? What do the words Christian and/or faith mean to you?