Fear Tactics

A traditional evangelical method of enticing people into faith has been to try and scare them. If you don’t believe you are going to hell. Booga booga! Revival meetings have been using this technique forever along with modern TV evangelists. Let me scare you into the kingdom of God. This has always seemed a tad odd to me. The kind and loving God who sacrificed his son for the entire world, wants his ambassadors to scare the crap out of non-believers? It is rather like the old cartoon showing a man carrying a sandwich board with the inscription, “Ha, ha, ha, I’m saved and you’re not.” Sick. I thought it was dumb and wrong and never used it.

We find the same tactics used by conservative politicians (there is a connection.) Our defense budget is inadequate and we will be overrun by the enemy. Who? The country is going bankrupt and we’re doomed (unless you are part of the upper 1% who seem to be doing the dooming.) The government will take all our guns away from us so we won’t be able to fight off the invaders. What invaders? Liberals also leap to the fore with things like scaring us that the dirty rotten Republicans will gut Social Security and Medicare and they are stacking the Supreme Court. Hmm, that is a little scary.

As President Nixon said, “People react to fear, not love—they don’t teach that in Sunday School, but it’s true.” He was a pretty good fear mongerer himself.

Global warming will destroy us. Global warming doesn’t exist. Both are scary.

Biblicists say, “be not afraid for God is with us.” But this is a post-Christian age and who is listening to them?

Henny Penny is hollering loudly, “The sky is falling!” As for Chicken Little, he can’t afford any prime time TV time and the TV newsfolk won’t talk to him; dull and unprofitable.