On GOD, Fear, and Punishment – Don Hanley’s blog #23

I don’t know how old I was when I first heard this horrible attempt at praise: “He’s a God-fearing man.” “God-fearing”?? I thought God was supposed to be the supreme loving one; was he not?

Then, I saw a gigantic picture of God the Father sitting on a throne above the altar in our church. Is God both a horrible, cruel, bad-ass supreme being And a loving being? I was confused. Now I’m confused that so many millions believe in such a two-faced God – a god that is loving and totally cruel and hateful at the same time. One that can bless us with love, hope, kindness, and creativity and curse us with hatefulness, cruelty, fear, and helplessness. And if we perform any actions driven by the curses, then he will throw us into hell for all eternity. Wow, what a confusing bunch of beliefs.

Now, I really like a friend’s experience when he was six, “When the teacher said God was a supreme being, I thought she said, ‘Supreme Bean.” That god, I can relate to.

I like Albert Einstein’s ideas on God. He puts a modern twist on the idea of God and builds on St. John’s: “God is love, and he who lives in love, lives in God and God in him” (or her). I believe that the kind of fear that affects our view of life and of ourselves is taught to us through our family life, religious instruction, schooling, and political thinking.

In Alice Miller’s book For Your Own Good, she cites a guidebook for parents written by a Christian minister around 1900. He stated that if parents do not break a child’s spirit by the time the child is two years old, those parents will have a monster on their hands. In that same book, she states – that an infant and baby before the age of two can be severely punished by any means necessary, and that will not harm the child for life as he or she will not remember the punishment. Are you as horrified by these two ideas as I was? Sadly, I believe some form of these so-called guidelines is still running loose in too many families, churches, and schools.

This thinking and punishment leads to excessive fear, anger, and hatred toward self and others. The child growing up under these guidelines is crippled for life. So, please, follow more civil and loving guidelines for yourself and your family and your interactions with all others in this world. Now be an increasingly joyous I - Thou. and...

Nurture your heart, AND don’t eat the menu, nor fear the child in yourself.