The problem with fear is it can be a situationally appropriate emotion that triggers hyper alertness or an emotion irrationally stoked for malevolent ends.
This is where we are today as a nation and as a society. And more than that, this fear is intentionally being spread to ends we do not want to go.
We are all familiar with the spontaneous, unconscious response we make when we find ourselves afraid. I don’t remember the first time I heard, “Fight or fight.” It is possible it was a childhood instinct I later learned was a way my body had of processing fear or danger.
Michael Chancellor
However, when I read “Complex PTSD” From Surviving to Thriving, by Pete Walker, I learned there can be two other responses borne out of childhood trauma. What make these two additional responses relevant is that within the family or extended family, fighting or fleeing are not always options. A child raised by an intoxicated parent who slips into anger, rage or violence can be somewhat inescapable.
Hence two other responses that may be learned are “freeze or fawn.”
Walker notes freezing is often seen as a temporary disassociation, while fawning can be a learned behavior of deescalating a situation by redirecting the anger, rage or attention away from oneself. The child learns to do specific tasks or actions or deploy certain words that calm the encounter.
I point specifically to fear, because I believe our current president and his party are purposely stoking fear within the United States.
Here are some of ways this is done.
First, by referencing a vague greatness seen in the past but absent from the present. The problem with this is twofold: We look back with a preconceived bias and blindness. The bias invites us to be selective in our personal history, leaving out what does not fit the “greatness” narrative. The blindness invites us to see the past only through our eyes and experiences. It bypasses a more balanced, broader perspective about our lived experience.
“Our current president and his party are purposely stoking fear within the United States.”
It may seem petty of me to remember less fondly things like evaporative cooling, SPAM, potted meat, bologna, grape jelly, measles, chicken pox and ear infections. It wasn’t until I was grown with my own family I realized these were what we could afford or the limits of science and medicine — not necessarily what I wanted.
Second, by framing the greatness that has slipped away by blaming others for this loss of greatness. One of the favorite targets of this loss is the federal government. According to some, our federal government has become riddled with “waste, fraud and abuse.” For that reason the president introduced “DOGE.” Lots of people lost their jobs, but the claims of waste and fraud never were substantiated by evidence.
Third, this president and his party have incited an unjustified sense of being cheated by their government and by “others”:
- Illegal immigrants. While most, but not all are from Central or South America, the presence of these people in our country is cited as the reason for higher crime and higher prices, and they are accused of taking all the government benefits through Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. The only problem is, that’s not true. Now that this administration has weaponized ICE to round up these people, they’ve caught up naturalized citizens, people with valid passports and work visas and people wrongly labeled as criminals. So, with the success of ICE raids, we have lost farm workers, construction workers and families who filed for asylum fleeing violence and corruption at home.
- Religious minorities. This religious minority in America has been targeted because that is the way fear works. Fear is stoked because we need to be afraid of others who are different from us. What better group to identify than Muslims. They have a different religion, different customs, different language, different foods.
- Sexual minorities. Gay, lesbian and transgender people have become another target of the free-floating fear, shaming and blaming MAGA has used on American children and families. It is profoundly troubling to me as a Christian that we are attempting to turn the clock back and push people back into the closet and into the shadows because a sexual pervert and pedophile leading our country has distracted us with hate and fear.
- Ethnic minorities. MAGA has stirred up a renewed racism toward African Americans, Native Americans and Hispanics — all evil legacies of our past we have been attempting to move beyond.
This is not a new thing, not at all. Rather it is a continuation of an attempt to shape who is allowed and not allowed to feel at home in this nation. This is our heritage.
However, if we don’t stand up and speak up, we are not worthy of our neighbors God has brought to our shores.
Michael Chancellor served 33 years as pastor of four Baptist churches in Texas, six years as a mental health manager in a maximum-security Texas prison before becoming a therapist in private practice in Round Rock, Texas. He now lives in Taylor, Texas.
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The other epidemic: Fear | Opinion by Kris Aaron
Why ‘moderate’ churches fear telling it like it is | Opinion by Eric Minton
My journey from fear to a whole new way of seeing grace | Opinion by J. Claude Huguley