In church this morning, Cal Culpepper delivered the message on Numbers. Specifically, the passages concerning God telling Moses to send spies to Canaan. The spies return, reporting that, yes, the land does indeed flow with milk and honey. At the same time, it's filled with people who are far stronger, even physically larger (we have the nephilim raising their odd heads in this passage). So, despite the promise part of Promised Land, ten of the twelve insist it would be far better not to enter.
Cal's message was chock full of Christiany goodness. I would like to lift up just part of what he said, because it resonates with something that has been on my mind a whole lot lately.
Why are we, as a people, so filled with fear? We are afraid of Mexicans. We are afraid of Muslims. We are afraid of Republicans and Democrats. We are afraid of Socialists and Nazis. This fear resonates through our popular culture, reflected in the plethora of horror films - Paranormal Activity, A Haunting in Connecticut, and The Reaping are just a sampling - play upon our fears of the unknown, giving a supernatural face and shape to our general sense of unease about others. Oddly enough, there has been a whole spate of films involving possession that, like The Exorcist, seem to posit Satan as extremely interested in possessing the bodies of prepubescent girls. I mused on Facebook that it might be far better to picture Satan possessing, say, the Prime Minister of Great Britain or the CEO of Raytheon, rather than some kid who still has trouble balancing on a pair of roller skates.
Now, bear with me a moment. I have come to enjoy the TV series Supernatural, dealing specifically with a whole underground culture of "hunters" after ghosts, monsters, vampires, witches - all the critters that make us quiver in our boots. The characters, Sam and Dean Winchester, drive around the back roads of America in a black 1967 Chevrolet muscle car, listening to 70's and 80's hard rock, outlaws who serve a higher law (one of the many US myths about ourselves, that living outside the law is usually done for the greater good).
One of the things I found fascinating from the very beginning was the way Sam and Dean faced these various spooks. They did it without any fear whatsoever. Perhaps because they weren't unknown to them; perhaps because they had been trained to act rather than react, who knows. In any event, they faced these creatures - up to and including demons and angels - without fear, sometimes even with contempt (angels don't come off looking so well; in fact, they are quite often referred to as "dicks").
I guess I always thought that was how we were supposed to live our lives as Christians. Unafraid. If God is for us who can be against us, right? Yet, far too many Christians are really quite cowardly. Gays are going to destroy our country, then wreak havoc on the earth. God is actually being kept out of American classrooms. God! Did you know that we could do that?
Whether it is in our churches or the larger society, we are a people who are inundated with one simple, clear message - be afraid. Be afraid of weapons of mass destruction. Be afraid that the person next to you on the subway/bus/train/airplane may be a terrorist. Be afraid that, with organized Christian sectarian prayer out of our schools, the next stop is underage orgies.
We have become a church and a nation of chicken-hearted, lilly-livered cowards. Seriously. We should be ashamed of how cowardly we are. Yet this fear is spread, and our cowardice encouraged, by all sorts of folks who gain power over us in the midst of our fear. Rather than stand up and refuse to listen, it seems we are about to accept that we must turn for security to those who have targets for our fear.
We are, sad to say, a bunch of sorry-ass, whiny little babies. The monsters under our bed aren't real. The boogey-man is a fiction. The stranger on the train is in a hurry to get to her doctor's appointment. Born and raised in Hawaii, our President is as American as apple pie. We shouldn't even fear fear; rather, we should be enraged that our fears are encouraged and exploited for personal gain by those who have no real intention of protecting us.
