{"id":39761,"date":"2017-02-19T06:22:27","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T11:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=39761"},"modified":"2017-02-18T10:12:13","modified_gmt":"2017-02-18T15:12:13","slug":"slavery-fear-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/02\/slavery-fear-death.html","title":{"rendered":"Slavery to the Fear of Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Richard Beck\u2019s words in a recent blog post<\/a> seemed to me meme-worthy. Here is the quote (with a little extra, to show that it is worth clicking through to read the whole thing<\/a>) \u2013 the meme is at the end of the post below\u2026<\/p>\n

And as the fear of death falls upon us so does the power of the Devil.<\/p>\n

Gripped by fear our capacities for love, compassion and hospitality quickly dry up and evaporate. Perfect love, battling hard to cast out fear, goes on life-support. If it\u2019s not already dead and flat-lined.<\/p>\n

And the words \u201ccast out\u201d are prophetically appropriate. Again, in the words of Hebrews fear is the power of the Devil. And America is in dire need of an exorcism.<\/p>\n

There are no guarantees with love. That doesn\u2019t mean you act recklessly or foolishly. But it does mean that doing the loving thing, the compassionate thing, the humane thing involves facing down legitimate fears and a willingness to live with very real risks.<\/p>\n

The fog of fear, rooted in concerns over safety and security, is the dark spell the Devil casts to bewitch the Children of Light, the diabolical alchemy that transforms gentle and kind people into the Children of Darkness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sheila Kennedy made a similar point when she referred to fear as \u201cthe demagogue\u2019s friend.\u201d<\/a> See too Richard\u2019s post about not obeying the sermon on the mount<\/a>, John Erickson\u2019s post \u201cWelcome to the Resistance,\u201d<\/a> and Zack Christensen\u2019s post about loving enemies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Beck<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Beck\u2019s words in a recent blog post seemed to me meme-worthy. Here is the quote (with a little extra, to show that it is worth clicking through to read the whole thing) \u2013 the meme is at the end of the post below\u2026 And as the fear of death falls upon us so does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":39796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[2522,2648,3261,3378,14591,9854,10121,10355,11184],"class_list":["post-39761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-progressive-christianity-religion","tag-death","tag-devil","tag-exorcism","tag-fear","tag-fearmongering","tag-quote","tag-refugees","tag-richard-beck","tag-sheila-kennedy"],"yoast_head":"\nSlavery to the Fear of Death<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Richard Beck's words in a recent blog post seemed to me meme-worthy. 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