Good Friday and the Politics of Fear

By susan on April 2nd, 2010
Posted in church, random rants, religion | 1 Comment »

One of the fastest ways to get people angry with each other is to bring up politics or religion. It seems like my parents’ generation was very careful to not discuss those things in the company of friends, unless they were sure that they shared similar ideals. That way they could play bridge or golf with people of different religions or political parties. They were very careful not to offend each other.

In these days of social networking and the internet, hardly a thought is kept private and we are much more likely to know exactly where people stand in politics and religion. And we are much more likely to engage each other on these issues.

Have any of you ever been involved in an internet discussion on a political issues? You know how hard it is to keep a cool head and engage others with respect. Do you ever get that little surge of adrenaline that comes with knowing that you’re going to battle? You brush up on your facts and prepare to make a case for your point of view. You really have no interest in understanding the point of view of “the enemy.” Your aim is to destroy them. Pretty soon the insults are flying from both sides and feelings are hurt, and you’re wasting hours a day generating more heat than light.

Why do we act like that? Because we all want to be right. We all want our side to prevail. We want things to work out for our own best interests. We can’t figure out why people don’t think like us. We start thinking that people with the opposite point of view can’t even be human, and then we start treating them that way. We are afraid for our own egos, for our own selfish interests and we seek to destroy what threatens us.

I don’t need to tell you how crazy people will act in order to protect their own interests. If people feel threatened in any way – their income, power, housing, food supply, health care, or whatever – people can act quite insane. And they don’t need the threat to be real; they just need to be convinced that it is. Look at the state of political debate in our country. People go out and yell angry, racial epithets at congresspeople from the opposing party. Senators and representatives refuse to cooperate on important legislation because their status as an elected official might be in danger if they seem the slightest bit cooperative with the other side.

Politics have become so polarized that people involved have abandoned reason in favor of trying to scare people into agreeing with them. Some leaders keep repeating the same lies over and over again in the hopes that people will be start believing the lies. Look at how idea of “death panels” has influenced the health care debate. There is no such thing in the legislation and look at how many people believe it anyway because they’ve heard about it over and over. Many people have become convinced that they should be scared of this legislation, without even checking the facts for themselves. Fear is a powerful motivator.

On Good Friday, one question to ask is why was Jesus killed? The short answer is that he threatened some very powerful people. They were afraid of him and what he stood for. There were rumors about Jesus, that he was going to make himself the king of the Jews. In Mark 11:18 we read “The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.” And in John 11:47-48, “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

The Jews didn’t like being ruled by Rome, but they had a working relationship with them. Jesus’ huge following and the rumors of him being “King of the Jews” threatened the status quo, even though the status quo wasn’t all that great. So Caiaphas, the high priest, began to plot Jesus’ death, reasoning that it was better to eliminate one man who could cause a huge mess.

The leaders incited such fear among the people that Jesus was turned over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman ruler of the region, and demanded that he put Jesus to death. Pilate knew that he couldn’t quickly get reinforcements from Rome to put down a revolution, so he kept the peace by reluctantly giving in to the demands of the Jewish religious leaders that Jesus be put to death.

Can any good come from the politics of fear and hate? Do innocent victims keep having to pay the price of that fear? And why do religious groups have to play into those politics? The death of Jesus is a powerful lesson on what fear can make people do. When we become fearful for ourselves and our interests, and hate those who are different from us, we crucify Jesus over and over again.

Fortunately the lesson doesn’t end there. The resurrection of Jesus is a promise that peace, joy, hope, and love will, in the end, prevail over fear and hatred. And there are encouraging signs in our world today that we can, indeed, learn to understand one another and respect others of opposing views.

In response to the scare tactics used by groups such as “the Tea Party” a new group has sprung up calling itself “The Coffee Party.” Here, members much commit to civility in public discourse. All viewpoints are to be respected and there will be no insults or name calling. People of differing political views are beginning to meet in coffee shops all over the country to discuss the issues in fair and balanced ways. It is a very hopeful movement based on respect for differences and overcoming the pettiness that characterizes modern politics.

And there are other signs of hope in the world. I saw a video today of a school’s response to picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church, which is a registered hate group that organizes demonstrations at funerals of soldiers, various schools, and communities that promote tolerance between people. The students decided that they were not going to let the hate group have the last word, and gathered a huge crowd to sing to the WBC protesters. You can watch the video here: Gunn High School sings away hate group.

The central story in Christianity, about the death and resurrection of Jesus, is a story of good overcoming evil. We do not have to give in to fear and hatred. We can act based on hope and love. On this Good Friday, let’s put to death hatred in the name of God of those who are different.

Information Overload

By susan on March 25th, 2010
Posted in enneagram, modern life, random rants, spirituality | No Comments »

In my email in-box this morning was a new Costco ad, featuring all kinds of new electronic gadgets promising to improve my life. People who know me know that I am a total gadget goddess, a junkie for all things new and different and technological. Every now and then one of these gadgets actually does simplify my life, like my Kindle, which allows me to carry around an absurd number of books; books which don’t add to the real estate crisis on my bookshelves. But mostly the gadgets fill my house with shining LED lights and wires that inexplicably tangle themselves together into an orgy of knots.

A recent Costco acquisition was a GPS unit with “lane assist.” I have traveled to LA twice in the last six months or so, and driving on the freeways without the lane assist feature is, well, an exercise in terror. When there are 8 lanes going in each direction, exits on the right and left, and the car is moving at 60 miles and hour, it is just not helpful when your GPS tells you to “take the next exit” fifty feet before the exit. So on this last trip to LA, I was prepared. And for the most part, the device delivered – Until it broke on the next to last day of the trip. Fortunately on the last trip, I had learned the way, more or less, from Long Beach to the airport. We had rented a GPS unit with the car, but it didn’t work properly and didn’t actually speak the directions, so we basically used it as a map.

I often wonder if all of these electronic gadgets, and the whole proliferation of devices designed to deliver information, actually enrich our lives or just make us less resourceful and able to think for ourselves. Advances in medical knowledge tell us that to stave off degenerative brain disease, like Alzheimer’s, we should solve puzzles and do things that make us think. Might using a map and figuring out our own routes from here to there be actually better for our brains than being fed turn by turn directions? Is using a GPS to get somewhere and then doing puzzles to work out our brains kind of like driving to a health club to exercise our bodies?

It’s just one of those things that make me say “hmmm.” Of course, I do both – I drive to the health club to swim and I use the GPS when I’m traveling or going somewhere unfamiliar. And I also walk my dogs for exercise and use maps when finding a new place. But I do wonder if all these new gadgets that deliver instant information are actually all that helpful in the grand scheme or our lives. Is being bombarded by information from dawn to dusk and afterward a good thing?

I think not. I hear a lot of people complain that when they go to bed, they can’t turn off their minds. But how could we turn off our minds when we are soaking up information every waking moment. Our brains are overloaded and spinning out of control. This is not a sign that we know how to think well. If we knew how to think, to use our brains instead of allowing our brains to use us, we would be able to turn them off and stop the endless ruminations.

There are ways to do this, but they are not easy or quick to learn. The first step is to just turn off the information flow for a time every day. Turn off the computer, put down the book or magazine, turn off the TV or radio, and shut down the gaming software. Then just notice what happens with your mind and body. Do you feel anxious? Are you immediately bored? Do you start to fidget? What do you think about – are there patterns of thought that pop up? Try to sit with any discomfort you feel and figure out what needs to be done.

I love the work of Andrea Isaacs. She works with the Enneagram and Emotional Intelligence. She has people physically act out their emotional or mental discomfort, and then has them listen to their bodies, and let their bodies tell them what to do as an antidote. I suggest trying this as a start; you may be surprised at how much your body knows. Instead of seeking yet more information to understand your discomfort, just sit with the feelings and thoughts and let your body respond.