Home - Hawley United Methodist Church

THE PASTOR'S MESSAGE

For the next 60 days we are going to be deluged with political ads � more than we can imagine � both local and national. Chances are that we will be overwhelmed with information and misinformation; and we will need to wade through the numerous truths and untruths in order to reach our eventual conclusions. Such is the way we do politics in this country.

We are told that the public is tired of negative ads but the sad truth is that they work. Clearly, we respond to this strategy or the candidates would not be spending millions of dollars for the sole purpose of bashing their opponents. Needless to say, this does not speak well of us as a nation � but what disturbs me most is the way in which fear is used to focus our attention away from the important issues with which we should be concerned. Fear is the tool of the weak and empty, and is used as a final act when all else has failed.

Fear, as a tactic, was not invented by politicians. It has been an arrow in the quiver of the church for centuries. �If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?� That statement has been used by Christians for decades as a means of converting people - and at the heart of that statement is fear. The rationale, as it was told to me by a person who loved to use this phrase in his personal evangelism, was that it is better to scare someone into the kingdom of God than let them go to hell.
In my 45+ years of reading, teaching and preaching the Bible, I have yet to find where Jesus ever used fear as a conversion tactic. It is true that He issued warnings that people needed to change the way that they were living, but his warnings were not rooted in fear but in love and mercy, both for those to whom he ministered and on behalf of his Father whose kingdom he came to inaugurate and proclaim.

Even St Paul, who is given to grand hyperbole at times, never reverts to fear as a means of proclaiming the good news to his audience. He pleads with them, encourages them, prays for them, disputes with them but never argues that if they choose another way that they are going to be moving beyond God�s grace, cutting themselves off from redemption.

Fear is a tool of self-interest and a haven of the vacuous. If we are to fear anything, it is those who traffic in fear. Even the writer of Revelation doesn�t use fear to try to convert people to his view. Revelation is a word of hope to a people who are facing persecution, telling readers that God�s will is going to be accomplished irrespective of what the nations of the world may plan.

I really don�t expect politicians to appropriate Biblical values; however, if they are going to make that assertion, someone needs to remind them that Biblical values encompass more than issues of abortion and marriage. Those who claim to be followers of Christ should be living the Biblical values of love and mercy, forgiveness and grace, hope and faith � not cherry pick only those that might make the great �sound bites� and win elections.

The next several months are critical ones for our country. Amidst the barrage of negativity, we must be thoughtful and prayerful about the serious issues facing our country � and we must not allow fear to overwhelm us or cloud our judgment. As we read in 1 John, �Prefect love casts out all fear.� Thanks be to God.