{"id":12683,"date":"2012-12-24T08:45:23","date_gmt":"2012-12-24T12:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nakedpastor.com\/?p=12683"},"modified":"2012-12-24T08:45:23","modified_gmt":"2012-12-24T12:45:23","slug":"religion-is-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2012\/12\/religion-is-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"religion is fear"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><figure id=\"attachment_12684\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12684\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12684\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/328\/2012\/12\/religion-is-fear-590x590.jpg\" alt=\"religion is fear cartoon by nakedpastor david hayward\" width=\"590\" height=\"590\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12684\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cReligion is Fear\u201d (ink on paper, 8\u2033x8\u2033)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Religion is fear. The institutions of religion capitalize on fear. And we capitulate. To justify and tame our fear we spiritualize it, theologize it, and institutionalize it in order for us to feel protected from it. But this strategy only empowers it further.<\/p>\n<p>I know someone will say,\u00a0<em>\u201cTrue religion is this: to help the widow and the orphan!\u201d<\/em> But then that\u2019s not religion. Is it?! No, it\u2019s just basic kindness. Even in the story of Jesus when he talks about the sheep and the goats, he is quoted as saying that those who practiced religion and expected entry were not known by him, whereas those who were known by him simply gave glasses of water, clothing, and visits to others. Not religious at all. Basic human kindness.<\/p>\n<p>Once you see that fear is one of the most primal impulses of your brain and how the brain circulates this fear in order to entrap you even further in pathetic attempts to protect yourself with such things as religion, your deliverance is nigh.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #a52a2a\">(Many original cartoon drawings and prints are available, including this one! <a href=\"mailto:haywardart@gmail.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Email me<\/a> if interested. Original drawings are $100 and prints are $25 plus shipping. Or you can look through my <a href=\"http:\/\/nakedpastor.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">online gallery<\/a>.)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Religion is fear. The institutions of religion capitalize on fear. And we capitulate. To justify and tame our fear we spiritualize it, theologize it, and institutionalize it in order for us to feel protected from it. But this strategy only empowers it further. I know someone will say,\u00a0\u201cTrue religion is this: to help the widow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2804,2834,603,722,2891,2924],"class_list":["post-12683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartoons","tag-christian_cartoon","tag-church_cartoon","tag-david_hayward","tag-nakedpastor","tag-religion_cartoon","tag-religion_is_fear"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>religion is fear<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Religion is fear. The institutions of religion capitalize on fear. And we capitulate. To justify and tame our fear we spiritualize it, theologize it, and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2012\/12\/religion-is-fear\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"religion is fear\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Religion is fear. The institutions of religion capitalize on fear. And we capitulate. To justify and tame our fear we spiritualize it, theologize it, and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2012\/12\/religion-is-fear\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"nakedpastor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-24T12:45:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/files\/2012\/12\/religion-is-fear-590x590.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Hayward\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Hayward\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2012\/12\/religion-is-fear\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/2012\/12\/religion-is-fear\/\",\"name\":\"religion is fear\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-24T12:45:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-24T12:45:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nakedpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/b03e284877607fc17deb854c047e58d9\"},\"description\":\"Religion is fear. 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