What Fear Tries to Protect
“No one should lose their child so that someone else can feel more comfortable in their fear.” What might be coming down the tracks as we look toward the dawning of a new day? ———— Lately, as I’ve been immersed in promoting the House of Commons e-Petition I initiated just before Christmas, I’ve found myself returning again and again to the work of Ernest Becker. Some friends might say I’m stuck on him. Maybe I am. But Becker has this unsettling way of naming something we would rather not see: that so much of what passes for morality, certainty, and social order is really an elaborate attempt to manage our fear of death, our fear of fragility, our fear that the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and how the world works might not be as solid as we need them to be. Years ago, when I was studying at the Vancouver School of Theology, the late Sallie McFague, who served as theologian-in-residence, spoke about what it means to live “outside the circle” of what a culture considers norm...
