Good Friday and the Politics of Fear
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.
Dear Friends, Happy Easter!!