I'm testing a theory. Perhaps you can weigh in on it. My theory is that fear causes hatred and hatred causes fear. Don't know which comes first or if it always comes in the same order. I'm theorizing that they're both part of the same circle and which comes first depends on which part of the circle you jump into. I've been on this quest for at least a year to notice how many times in a day I am given or give a message meant to cause fear. Whether it's a news story, an advertisement, a story from a friend about some study she's just read, a piece of health information, a religious message, or a reason I give my kids for doing what I say, there's a lot of fear based messages flying around. In my opinion, this is something to stand against where ever possible, especially when the message of fear is being used in a religious context to try to motivate people to straighten up. So here's where my theory comes in. Do these messages of fear actually end up causing hatred of something or someone (or self) or the intended changed behavior? It's an old addage that people fear what they don't understand. Does this mean that if we don't understand someone or something we will end up hating them as well? Could this be a key to making war obsolete? How far could this go?
"...but we are not given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-dicipline" 2 Timothy 1:7
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4 comments:
You make me think of a verse...
"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Mt 10:28
The fear if the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Prob. 1:7 (NIV)The theory sounds good but isn't quite complete. Too many fear evil, but the fear stimulates them to seek it for the thrill. Where as fearing God is supposed to lead us to wisdom, but we boldly spit in His eye. Perhaps the whole world is just upside down.
yeah, i don't think the two words translated as fear are actually the same word or have the same meaning - fear of God and fear of evil. I'm pretty sure those are two very different words that just happen to sound the same in English. if they actually are the same, my theory only aplies to the fear that's not fear of God.
I can see that fear leads to hatred. I'm not sure that fear is all bad though. If it keeps my kid from running in the road, playing with matches, trying drugs or getting pregnant, is that a bad thing? Or, are you saying there might be a better way to illicit good decisions about those behaviours without using fear?
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