One of the things that struck me at the conference this weekend (of the many) was the way that fear has controlled our country since 9/11. The Republicans have been masterful at playing on this fear to gain electoral victory and advance what is on the whole, a rather unpopular agenda. But the fear goes deeper than this, and it has affected my life as well.
Even during the conference itself, I thought about Beslan in Russia and how easy it would be for terrorists to burst in, take the 1000 of us hostage, and then murder us all. I can never board a plane without the fear in the back of my mind that this might be the one with the bad guys on it. And even driving through downtown brings up occasional thoughts of a dirty bomb or suitcase nuke detonation thoroughly ruining my day. I suspect most Americans have some level of fear, although at times I wonder if mine is a bit more neurotic than most.
In any case, Richard Rohr addressed this issue head-on, and it made me think. Here is my liveblog from that section of his talk today:
“Survey that people are more fearful now than they were five years ago immediately after 9/11. This is a very clever way to keep people enslaved. Keep the self afraid, and you keep the self split. You can’t bring your wholeness, you can’t say “Here I am.”
While I can’t expect the country as a whole to be able to move beyond the fear in this way, I CAN expect the church to do so. It seems to me that the church in our country, myself included, has failed to realize that it has total freedom in Christ. The freedom to take risks that seem foolish. The freedom to not be afraid in the face of fear. The freedom to die because death is a doorway to complete wholeness in Christ.
But our flesh keeps us dwelling upon fear. It keeps us split, so that we cannot bring our wholeness to God and say “Here I am.”
The goal for me this next year is to stop walking in fear and instead walk in faith.
But this needs to be the goal for the church as a whole. The church needs to lead our country past our fears. We need to show Americans that there are alternatives to the fearful responses to terrorism presented by the current administration, and very likely, even the Democrats if they gain power. We need to present fearless strategies which can overcome terrorism - yes, with suffering, as that is the call of the church - through the strength of our love.
But it has to start with me. It’s time for me to stop responding to fear and strive to respond only to God. I want to bring my wholeness to Him so that he can use me to bring wholeness to others. But I need to be whole to do that, and my fear prevents that. The world is an incredibly frightening place in the 21st century, but the world is ultimately not to be feared. We have a God who is much stronger than anything the world can throw at us. Even if it throws us our death.
