Relatively recently, I have been trying to reference religious themes in those blog postings that are scheduled to appear on Sundays. That's fine, of course, but then why does my comment today - scheduled for a Sunday - feature a picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our thirty-second president? President Roosevelt is not generally considered to have been any kind of "religious" figure. In fact, he was really "political" - although I do want to report that my grandparents, on my mother's side (Durward and Alma Bracken) did consider Roosevelt to have been a kind of political "savior," given my grandparents' experiences in the Great Depression.
Well, here's why Roosevelt came to mind, as I thought about highlighting (again) what is generally considered to be a "religious" assertion - an assertion found in the Bible something like eighty different times. I speak, of course, of the following assertion: "Fear Not." If you click that link, you'll see a blog posting that I wrote about ten years ago, dedicated to the "Fear Not" commandment. I have mentioned the same thing many times since. "Fear Not" is both a political principle and a statement of faith. If you click that second link to the "Fear Not" assertion, you'll get fifteen different Bible verses about overcoming fear.
Fear immobilizes. Fear paralyzes. Fear incapitates, and fear prevents us from taking action, when action is called for. If you don't sense a reference, here, to the United States Congress in the time of the Trump presidency you haven't been paying attention to what's happening in our politics today. "Fear" has a powerful impact on our ability to take political action - and thus to fulfill our commitment to a politics "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Beyond its religious bonafides, the call to "Fear Not" has immense "political" significance, and that is why President Roosevelt, in this first Inaugural Address, in 1933, told a fearful public that "we have nothing to fear but fear itself."
For many of us - and probably for all of us, at times - our fear of death is what prevents us from acting when we are being "called" to take action. That idea - that we are, during our lives, sometimes "called" to do something, and, specifically, called to do something that will expose us to known or unknown dangers - is, I would say, a "religious" concept. I'd like to think that many of those who might read this blog posting have had this experience. It is, or can be, anyway, a truly "religious" experience, being called to take action in the world, as we are beckoned to respond to pain, suffering, and moral challenges - and then responding to that call, setting aside what are often quite realistic fears, to do what is being called for.
I felt "called" to refuse induction into the armed forces, during the Vietnam War, and I heeded that call. I did refuse. That does not mean that I was "unafraid." I was afraid of what would happen to me if I did what I thought I should do, but the Biblical (and political) injunction to "Fear Not" ultimately supported my action to respond to that call of conscience.
When called to act, taking the action to which you are called is the response demanded. It is easier to do that, obviously, if you can do it "fearlessly," but when action is demanded, we can respond "fearfully" as well as "fearlessly." The second way is best, as President Roosevelt realized, as he told us that the only real fear we need to have is "fear itself."
To accomplish a "fearless" response, when we are called to act, it is death itself that must be faced fearlessly. That is why President Roosevelt's message is such an appropriate one for this Sunday!
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