“Let me
assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, 1933
FDR sought
to speak a word of hope into a desperate situation. In 1933 the nation was in the grips of the
Great Depression. People didn’t know who
to trust. Banks closed and people’s
savings disintegrated. The stock market
which boomed for so many years collapsed.
Once the fear got going it overwhelmed the nation with disastrous consequences. People
saw little hope for the future and could only think of survival. FDR knew that this had to change. To get the nation moving forward again people had
to have hope in something.
Many of us
experienced similar emotions in October 2008 as the economy went into a free
fall. Companies closed. The stock market fell apart. People lost jobs. Once the fear got rolling there was no
stopping it.
Fear
paralyses people. It causes them to make
irrational decisions, not based on facts, but based on emotions. Fear causes the ‘fight or flight’ mentality
to kick in. Self-preservation trumps
all.
Right now
our airwaves abound in fear! With only a
couple weeks left in this election cycle, both major parties do what they can
to make us fear their opponents. If we
believed the Republican rhetoric, voting for Obama is not only a vote for
another recession, it means that your grandma will no longer get health care,
you will probably lose your job, and America will be taken over by Muslim
extremists. If you believe the Democratic
rhetoric, voting for Romney is a vote for is a vote for the wealthy to get wealthier,
your grandma will lose her health care, and America will suddenly fight wars
all over the globe, especially in the Middle East.
Both parties
tell half-truths and outright lies to drive us to despair if the ‘other’ guy is
elected. They get us to vote out of fear
of what will happen if the ‘other’ wins.
The ‘party machines’ draw us into the fray. They give us the ‘talking points’ to use to
instill the most fear in those around us.
Those who vote on the opposite side of the aisle are ‘idiots’ who ‘just
don’t get it.’
How quickly
we forget about things like ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ and ‘you
shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.’ We make political candidates into
saviors. When speaking of the ‘opponent’
we fail to ‘defend them, speak well of them, and explain their action in the
kindest way.’
Can people
of faith bring another voice to the conversation? No matter which party carries the White House
and Congress, Jesus will still be Lord.
God will still care for God’s people.
We will still have the freedom to worship God as we choose.
Fear
mongering has no place among God’s people.
It’s high time for people of faith to set aside the half-truths, lies,
and fears which surround us. Before you
post a snarky Facebook message…before you repeat a rumor your heard about a
candidate…before you mock someone for misspeaking… before you call someone a
liar…take the time to ask, “Is this how Jesus wants us to treat one of His
children?” When we’re gripped by fear we
fail to care for our neighbor…we only think of ourselves. The last I checked, that’s not our Christian
calling!
With God at work in our world, what do we have to fear???
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