Love or fear? The choice is yours.
Every action taken by human beings is based in love or fear, not simply those dealing with relationships. . . . Every human thought, word or deed is based in one emotion or the other. You have no choice about this, because there is nothing else from which to choose. But you have free choice about which of these to select.
A child stands up for her beliefs at school and is verbally abused and harassed by parents and students of another religion.
Business owners and government officials take actions to clear Asheville’s downtown area of so-called “undesirables.”
Agents of the federal government execute another human being in the name of justice.
What do the actions above have in common? Were they taken out of love or fear? And, yes, these are the only two choices we humans really have in our entire bag of tricks, with every other way of being a derivative of one of these.
So was the Christian majority acting out of love or fear when they threatened and taunted Shana McNelly, a young pagan student who had asked that some of the Christian songs in a spring concert be changed? Though I wasn’t there, the stories I heard indicate that they were operating out of pure fear. Fear that their spiritual roots could not withstand such close proximity to another belief system? Fear that they might somehow be transformed into pagans themselves? Fear of the unknown? What would Jesus do? I don’t pretend to have the answer to that one. But my guess is that he wouldn’t have behaved as the majority of these folks did on this occasion.
Using force to clear downtown Asheville of aging hippies, “dreadlocked” dope smokers, ethnic minorities, the homeless, gays, and other alternative subcultures: Love or fear? You guessed it. Fear, perhaps, that some kids might bring down the walls of Jericho through their mysterious music and mystical incantations? Afraid that folks who don’t look and act “normal” might scare off some touristas, and we’ll lose a few bucks? Fear driven by the deep-seated belief “Miss one paycheck and I’m out on the street too.” To try to homogenize our city to make it palatable for tourists is akin to a plan that a certain fascist in Germany concocted in the 1930s. The diversity of this mountain city attracts people here. If vacationers want homogeneity and regimentation, respectfully inform them that they might want to consider Disney World instead of Asheville.
A human killing a human who has killed another human and calling this justice. Absolutely fear. Fear that the killer might kill again? Perhaps, but isn’t a life sentence in maximum security an effective alternative? Fear of someone who’s not like us? Or fear of that part of us that under certain circumstances might commit murder too? Yet, what about the decree found in many religious texts that forbids us to kill other men and women, that this power resides only in the Creator’s domain? I don’t recall any exceptions. The death penalty is state-sanctioned murder, a fearful act that only prolongs the cycle of violence, that in itself brings closure to no one . . . even in the case of Timothy McVeigh.
There are those who believe that each of us is destined to confront what we fear most deeply, that life will continue to present us with occasions to wrestle with our demons until we’re at peace with them or until we die. If this is true, then encounters with nonbelievers, kids with purple hair, and convicted murderers are really holy encounters, a chance to come to grips with our fears, to explore our beliefs about ourselves and others that generate these fears, to discern the truth or falsehood of those beliefs. For if we continue to fear and judge others, we separate ourselves from most of the human race, making life a never-ending competition—a game of putting the screws to them before they put the screws to you.
As God declared in Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations with God, Book I: “At the critical juncture in all human relationships, there is only one question: What would love do now?” We each have the divine within us. It is our lifelong mission to firmly connect with this divinity, this deep well of unconditional love in ourselves and in others, and to commit to living our lives from that reality.
Saturday, June 16th, 2001No Comments »
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