It seems to be a common refrain: religion is all about using fear to control and educate people.
Fear is the worst way to teach people. It is a last resort of the desperate, bad teacher. Pay attention, or doom on you. Remember this, or doom on you.
It is certainly true that we ourselves, our parents, and our grandparents have been met with some terrible fear-based religious teachers, at home, in school, and in church.
But generally we fear our permanent records, our loss of careers, and falling behind on the track of the American dream – even more than hell – based on fears taught by our elders and educators.
So if we are to write of the Church and religion because of some lousy teachers that only knew how to use fear to teach, we had better write off education and public schools too. Because they haven’t softened or changed tactics in the last 60 or more years.
Paul Nowak is a husband and father of 7, who also happens to be a writer and author. He has written The Way of the Christian Samurai among other books.