What Would Walter Say?

If the Christian faith does anything, it should help us overcome the fear that is so prevalent in the world.

My hope is that for all the youth, and people of all ages for that matter, that I have ministered with during my time in vocational ministry . . . I hope I have been able to help instill a faith built upon hope and not fear. So many ministers and ministries these days are built upon scaring people into heaven . . . or out of hell. If we can just get them to say the sinner's prayer, it will all be okay is their line of thinking, without any regard for how that happens. The ends, in other words, justify the means.

It's easy to think that it's a sign of the times. But a guy named Walter shows us that is not so. Here is what he has to say:

"In the Old Testament we have a number of accounts describing how men of the highest type of God-consciousness made their fundamental experience of God and received their prophetic mission. In none of those cases did the prophet struggle for his personal salvation as later Christian saints have done. His woe did not come through fear of personal damnation, but through his sense of solidarity with his people and through social feeling: his hope and comfort was not for himself alone but for his nation. This form of religious experience is more distinctively Christian than any form which is caused by fear and which thinks only of self. It contains larger possibilities of personal growth and religious power."

Walter Rauschenbusch wrote these words 95 years ago in his book, A Theology for the Social Gospel (p. 20). It's amazing how much his words are similar to what many authors are saying these days, particularly in those in the Emergent Church and in similar circles. The reality, though, is the opposite. Rauschenbusch is not getting his due credit. People today are saying what he said years ago. But no one is noting it.

I have purposely not checked my Facebook News Feed for a while now. Things were starting to get ugly with the election on the horizon. People were beginning to make me angry; and I was beginning to think less of them. I can only imagine how ridiculous the posts were Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.

The blame is on them. But it's also on people and figures that they follow and listen to, particularly preachers. Preachers have created a fear among people in the pews about elections. They have made people think that the world is going to end if a particular candidate does not wind up in the White House, congress, etc. They have worked off of fear. And it worked. Or at least it worked to create fear in others.

But as Rauschenbusch shows us, the Christian experience is not caused by or grounded in fear. The Christian experience is grounded in hope. Hope not only for self; but hope for us all, together.

The Little Girl Crying on YouTube

We laugh when we see this video because we feel the same way. But why do you think she feels this way?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIhy1zbrb9M

The video is funny. But she feels this way because of the adults in her life. The adults in her life are behaving in a way that causes this girl to cry. And they, the adults, blame the election for their actions.

As Dennis Green would say, they are who we thought they were.

Romney and Obama are who we think they are. They are going to fight and squabble because that is the system we have right now. We are going to see countless commercials between now and Tuesday because that's just the way it is. Same goes for all the state and local races around the country. It is what it is.

We can blame the political system all we want. But we are the ones who allow it to happen.

We pass on to the next generation(s) the way they are going to live their lives. Our negativity and our mistakes can do great harm. But our positivity and our goodness can do much good.

Rather than beating the candidates and the system up . . . I wonder how things would be if we started praising the people out there who are doing it right. What if we complemented and talked well of what we see going right out there? What if we discussed the good parts of our country with our children? What if the young people in our lives heard us talking about the reasons we are thankful to live in our great country . . . rather than the things that stink about our land?

Something tells me we would have less children feeling the way the little girl in the video does.