Fear: a feeling of anxiety and agitation caused by the presence or nearness of danger, evil, pain.

We’ve all experienced it in one way or another. It’s an especially effective word when trying to get someone to act the way you want them to. I could cite tons of examples in my life, but two will suffice. The first-the “boogeyman.”

I was a contrary little kid (surprised, those who know me?) — actually, borderline incorrigible. One of my aunts thought she had a remedy for my “problem.” Taking me aside, she frightened the bejeezus out of me by describing the creature and what he would do to me if I didn’t start behaving.

Talk about fear. I was transformed into “that little, curly-haired darling” in a heartbeat, but at a price: countless hours of lost sleep and nightmares.

Secondly, the Rev. Fred Thorne’s sermons. He was one convincing speaker. It didn’t take much repetition to convince me that I’d better follow a path of righteousness. Live the 10 Commandments? Bet your life when burning in hell forever was the alternative. Fear of eternal damnation was an extremely effective way of getting one to walk the straight and narrow. That is until I took a philosophy class in college; lots of unanswered questions about the logic of it all but none about living those commandments.

Baptist preacher Rev. Fred was an evangelical whose purpose in life was to live and preach the word of the Savior. Given the pastor’s understanding of the meaning of evangelism, I think he’d be appalled at what it has become. While fear has been used for centuries to keep the flock in line (i.e. after all, how successful would any religion be if there wasn’t a reward for followers given the sacrifices they were expected to make), it’s been on a spiritual basis. Recently, the spiritual has become political. Forget separation of church and state. A legion of “mega-church” pastors (e.g. Locke, Volf, Reed, Wright, Barton, Olsen, etc.) have substituted fear of God with fear of Biden, liberals, LGBTQ Americans and immigrants.

What was evangelism is now Christian nationalism and its spokesmen cherry-pick or misrepresent Biblical passages to support their political viewpoints while fleecing their congregations to amass sizable fortunes.

Much of the information which follows comes from bestselling author and son of an evangelical minister Tim Alberta’s brilliant expose,“The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory-American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism.” In a particularly contemptible and cringeworthy betrayal of a commandment they swore to obey, the aforementioned clergymen blatantly bear false witness and distort the truth in order to stoke the fires of fear among their congregations.

A prime example is Global Vision Bible Church Pastor Greg Locke. On various occasions he preached that autistic children are subjugated by demons , encouraged the burning of Harry Potter novels and accused President Biden of being a “sex-trafficking, demon possessed mongrel.”

Then there’s Pastor Bill Bolin (FloodGate Church in Michigan) who, during the COVID crisis, played the fear card by spouting misinformation and conspiratorial nonsense which included calling the vaccines “radically dangerous” and insisting that the epidemic itself was “…being manipulated with the funding and blessing of Dr. Anthony Fauci.”

He also poopooed masks. Can’t help but wonder how many misguided listeners subsequently perished. And, as an aside, his “Christian” diatribe against Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer included “doing a Nazi salute and calling her ‘Whitler’.” Me thinks that Bolin and thousands of his hypocritical colleagues need to be reminded that the Savior admonished followers to“Love thine enemies.”

After all, once you love them, they cease to be your enemies. Also troublesome was the instilling of a fear of persecution in the “they’ll believe anything you say” worshippers; that the pro-abortion, critical race theory, immigrant anti-Christs are coming to get them. The best of the rest of these fear mongers is the senior pastor of the First Baptist Dallas megachurch, Robert Jeffress, evangelism’s most prominent and unapologetic defender of Donald Trump.

This spokesman for God called anti-Trump evangelicals “spineless cowards” and excused the ex-president for his multitude of transgressions because he was a second coming of sorts, sent to save true believers from persecution by agents of Satan like Joe Biden. Intoxicated by his own rhetoric, Jeffress, the flagbearer of Christian nationalism, didn’t realize that his words were antithetical to Christ’s words spoken during His Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” He also encouraged us to “pray for those who persecute you.”

Among the most memorable examples of Christians who lived those words were Peter and his followers who did not cower in fear when facing the lions in a Roman amphitheater, but rather, met their horrific end by singing praises to their Lord. I’ll conclude as I began by sharing another of my fears. I fear that the millions of evangelicals who have taken to heart the words of their politically compromised preachers will allow their hatred and animosity to morph into violence against the “unbelievers” if Trump loses.

I fear that “Onward Christian Soldiers” will be taken literally instead of figuratively; the figurative “battle” against Satan and evil will become a literal war against Democrats and their lot. If this doomsday scenario seems far fetched, check out these words spoken by Pastor Steve Holt at a Colorado revival in the spring of 2022: “May this state be turned red with the blood of Jesus and politically.”

Finally, I fear for the future of a youngest generation subjected to the blasphemy of men like Holt. “Suffer the little children.” Many evangelicals fear that their end is near. And it might be. It won’t be caused by the boogeymen Dems, LGBTQ Americans and immigrants, but by their own selves after being led astray by false prophets who’ve sold their souls to a devil reincarnate. “Jesus said, ‘Don’t be afraid, just believe.'” — Mark 5:36.

Ray Lenarcic is a 1965 State University of New York at Fredonia graduate and is a resident of Herkimer.