Readings for the 5th Sunday of Easter:
Acts 6:1-7 | 1 Peter 2:4-9 | John 14:1-12

The religious fanaticism lodged in American culture and emerging from the current presidential administration requires a response from all people who claim to follow Jesus and his call to Gospel faith. For fanaticism is not the faith Jesus preaches. Christian fanaticism is based in fear and exploits the fears of others to impose its ideology and get the social order it secretly wants above all: a hierarchy of certain people above others. But Jesus’ call to faith is a call to let go of fear for LOVE and MYSTERY: “The only secure reality is something almost absurdly different, the anarchic mercy of God, which ignores order, rank and merit” (Rowan Williams).

Fanaticism or Gospel faith is a choice between illusory religion and real religion: “The maxim of illusory religion runs: ‘Fear not; trust in God and He will see that none of the things you fear will happen to you’; that of real religion, on the contrary, is ‘Fear not; the things that you are afraid of are quite likely to happen to you, but they are nothing to be afraid of’” (John MacMurray). Letting go of fear to trust God amidst the very real insecurities of life is a core message of scripture, of Jesus himself. It is a realistic faith, one that does not dismiss or deny the reality of sin. But we find ourselves being consumed by fear.

Rising prices, wars, and division make us anxious and generate fear. We start to worry about ourselves, our families, our society. Fear is stickier than superglue. It makes you cling desperately to anything and everything. Richard Rohr elaborates, “Brain studies have shown that we may be hardwired to focus on problems at the expense of a positive vision. The human brain wraps around fear and problems like Velcro. We dwell on bad experiences long after the fact, and spend vast amounts of energy anticipating what might go wrong in the future. Conversely, positivity and gratitude and simple happiness slide away like cheese on hot Teflon. Studies like the ones done by the neuroscientist Rick Hanson show that we must consciously hold on to a positive thought or feeling for a minimum of fifteen seconds before it leaves any imprint in the neurons. The whole dynamic, in fact, is called the Velcro/Teflon theory of the mind. We are more attracted to the problem than to the solution.”

Such fear leaves us exposed, susceptible to manipulation. Fanatics and fascists exploit this vulnerability; they use fear to control us. Indeed, fear makes us reach out for some form of security, but the securities offered by the systems of the world imprison the soul. Often, these false securities take the form of repressing some group deemed the official problem (think immigrants, for example), and then the old order of hierarchy and inequality is reestablished. Writer and teacher Amy Hall reflects, “Fear is also something that can be used to make people compliant or resentful, despondent, cruel, or isolated…The mode of fear that manipulates our relationship to one another inside a neighborhood or a family or a city is often subtle, a form of self-censorship.” Fear devolves the spirit and our connections with each other, which makes our souls a breeding ground for fanatical ideas.

Imprisoned in fear, religious fanatics run to an awful image of God. They seek order, certainty, and find a god presented as punitive and sadistic: a policeman god ready to catch and torture us or a stern judge ready to condemn us to eternal hell. Of course, the religious fanatic projects his own cruelty onto God and starts worshipping an idol, a false god validating the fanatic’s own cruelty. When fear festers, it rots real faith, degrading it until any concern for God, others, or love evaporates.

Jesus affirms there is only one security. “The only secure reality is something almost absurdly different, the anarchic mercy of God, which ignores order, rank and merit” (Williams). For Jesus, faith means letting God love us, letting God pour out the divine mercy on us. When we give ourselves over to the divine love, we discover there is nothing to fear from God. Even better, God is profligate: “So much love and grace from God that it washes over us recklessly. We don’t have to conserve or save grace from God because WE are already saved with abundant and unending grace” (Amy Hall). Faith in God’s love counters the compulsive and oppressive fear that creates fanaticism, the fear that solidifies the hierarchical ordering of society that falsely promises to grant our material needs. By Gospel faith, God liberates us from the fear that warps the perception of reality – the derangement and disconnection from truth – that comes from religious fanaticism.