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Tuesday, 19 December 2006 16:39 |
 | | Marc Mullinax |
"Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed."
ÇƒÓ Michael Pritchard
ï
MARS HILL ÇƒÓ Strolling through Atlantaës airport recently, Fear assaulted me. Announcers repeated messages from the Department of Homeland Insecurity. "Guard your bags." "Report suspicious behavior." "The Terrorist Threat Level is Orange."
Such announcements can only be the product of a government thatës living in sin, who does not believe in democracy. So it rules by fear. Long before 9/11, our government had this policy called "Really Bad Things Can Happen." Keeping the citizenry off-balance (aided by its lapdog, FOXNews), it seeks our compliance. Fear is national policy.
Gen.
Douglas MacArthur said, "The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual
state of fear; keep us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor
with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some
terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by
furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these
disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite
real."
The Master
called Fear has led us into needless wars, multiplied enemies, gotten
good religious folk all a-lather to go against their religion and kill,
and helps justify a multitude of wasteful spending projects. (I feel
safer, donët you?) We donët have a government "for" the people, but one
"against" them.
ï
Scene change. Forget government. Letës think "religion."
Fear and
religion are a bad chemistry. Arguably humanityës worst trait, fear is
the foundation of so much religiosity. Religions become mad systems of
anxious reward and punishment, where creation and Creator are
estranged, where ÇƒÏ like in our government ǃÏthe mouthpieces of faith
spout inanities to keep us spiritually off-balance.
Code Orange in
airports? Where did you think they got the idea? Religion can become
one long announcement to watch our spiritual baggage, suspicious faith
behavior, to ever-remind us how weëre always living in some hell called
Code Red.
ï Satanës out there prowling around. (Be on the watch!)
ï Santa (Satan
anagrammed!) informs our religions with "You better watch out!" and "Be
good," and then itës Reward Zone; but itës coal-fire if youëre bad!
ï What you donët
know can hurt you! (Letës invent mysterious gods and afterlives to keep
people tranquilized and questions minimized.)
ï Get saved!
(Donët bother finessing that salvation is more about working
relationships in this life than being saved from hell-fear in the next.)
In government
and religion, Fear keeps us from asking important questions. Quiet
people in either domain enable the few in power to sustain and increase
their control.
The God of fear
is a small reflection of our fearful selves, where Godës chief
intention is to reward and punish creation. While "the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom," the Lord of Fear has no place in a healthy
soul.
Without fear,
there probably would be no religion (although there would be faith).
The fear of death spawns endless varieties of gods, end-time scenarios
(none of which have materialized) ÇƒÏ and ignorance. How many times have
I heard that the mind is a terrible thing in matters of faith? How many
times have you heard that we are too puny and God is too big ever to
comprehend faith mysteries, so shut up already?
Just believe,
belong, behave, or bedamned. These four horsemen of the apocalypse are
fear-enabled, and sustain so many cruelties in the name of god.
Bertrand Russell
has the last word: "Fear is the basis of the whole thing ÇƒÏ fear of the
mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of
cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have
gone hand in hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two
things."
ï
Dr. Marc S.
Mullinax, chairman of the philosophy and religion departments at Mars
Hill College, can be reached at mmullinax-at-mhc.edu.
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