Gayle in MD
11-20-2010, 07:48 AM
http://my.firedoglake.com/revdonreeves/2010/11/19/the-fear-factor-in-religious-fundamentalism/
<span style='font-size: 11pt'>EXCERPTS </span>
<span style='font-size: 11pt'>The Fear Factor in Religious Fundamentalism…
By: Rev. Don Reeves, Chaplain/Colonel, USAF (Res/Ret)</span> Friday November 19, 2010 8:49 am
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">All religious belief systems are fueled by more than simple ‘spiritual’ factors. Mixed with the spiritual element are the very human emotional/psychological influences of the individual believer, which ultimately influence the system itself.
One of the strongest of those influences is the emotion of fear. And the ‘fear factor’ is a prime mover in all fundamentalist faith groups, including Christianity itself.
</div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Particularly present in the world’s so-called “Western” religions (Judaism/Islam/Christianity) is the often not-so-subtle element of ‘fear’ as a major, motivating force shaping religious commitment that operates…most of all…to protect human belief standards more than to promote presumed divine love and promise.
Within these religious cultures in particular, we do an injustice to our intelligence by ‘playing down’ the influence of fear as a motivating Factor of Faith.
Ironically, speaking from a Christian tradition, I believe fundamentalism’s dependence on fear, as a primary factor of faith, threatens to bolster religious commitments that arrogantly ‘put down’ any other theological view and create a religious/cultural impetus that affects every aspect of public life…from economics to politics.
Under the influence of that impetus, the ethos of a nation/culture can ultimately, and easily, become one that subtly promotes competitive separation from other cultures…rather than the cooperative connection so needed in a diverse world.
Thus, out of a basically fear-induced religious environment comes an ideological setting that threatens national and international efforts to create positive, political/cultural connections and supplants hope for world peace with fears of a world-of-wars.
Put simply, …in the final analysis…Religious Fear Factors, on the global scene, give birth to the very thing fundamentalists fear most…i.e., cultural conflicts that threaten their own dreams of Safety and Solvency and Security
</div></div>
<span style='font-size: 11pt'>EXCERPTS </span>
<span style='font-size: 11pt'>The Fear Factor in Religious Fundamentalism…
By: Rev. Don Reeves, Chaplain/Colonel, USAF (Res/Ret)</span> Friday November 19, 2010 8:49 am
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">All religious belief systems are fueled by more than simple ‘spiritual’ factors. Mixed with the spiritual element are the very human emotional/psychological influences of the individual believer, which ultimately influence the system itself.
One of the strongest of those influences is the emotion of fear. And the ‘fear factor’ is a prime mover in all fundamentalist faith groups, including Christianity itself.
</div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Particularly present in the world’s so-called “Western” religions (Judaism/Islam/Christianity) is the often not-so-subtle element of ‘fear’ as a major, motivating force shaping religious commitment that operates…most of all…to protect human belief standards more than to promote presumed divine love and promise.
Within these religious cultures in particular, we do an injustice to our intelligence by ‘playing down’ the influence of fear as a motivating Factor of Faith.
Ironically, speaking from a Christian tradition, I believe fundamentalism’s dependence on fear, as a primary factor of faith, threatens to bolster religious commitments that arrogantly ‘put down’ any other theological view and create a religious/cultural impetus that affects every aspect of public life…from economics to politics.
Under the influence of that impetus, the ethos of a nation/culture can ultimately, and easily, become one that subtly promotes competitive separation from other cultures…rather than the cooperative connection so needed in a diverse world.
Thus, out of a basically fear-induced religious environment comes an ideological setting that threatens national and international efforts to create positive, political/cultural connections and supplants hope for world peace with fears of a world-of-wars.
Put simply, …in the final analysis…Religious Fear Factors, on the global scene, give birth to the very thing fundamentalists fear most…i.e., cultural conflicts that threaten their own dreams of Safety and Solvency and Security
</div></div>