Is Christianity All About Fear?

Most people are afraid of anything they don't really know about or understand. Unfortunately a lot of Christians are discouraged from having an open mind about other religions and educating themselves about them. It suggests that their teachers don't have a whole lot of confidence in people continuing to believe when they find out what else is out there. Also, many people just aren't interested in learning about anything outside their own narrow little sphere. Acknowledging that everything you've been taught and everything you've believed all your life might not actually be The Truth is a scary, scary thing. But if you are truly secure in your own beliefs, you will not feel threatened by alternative faiths. I don't think Christianity is always a religion of fear (and I say that as an atheist). But there have always been elements of the church which portray it as such, and there have always been people who are unsure of their faith, and so the fear persists.

Christianity is definately about fear...BUT not just fear in the things you mentioned but I also feel they are conditioned to fear themselves! Their own thoughts, feelings, opinions and so on which is why IMO the fanatics quote the bible so much rather than speak from their own minds....I could never in my wildest dreams live in such an outrageous fear of everything around me..it has to be horrible to live like that (mind you I suppose they are none the wiser really)...I was a believer and follower of Christianity yrs ago (many many) but as I got older I clued in that things just didnt seem "right" with it all ya know....If you really sit down and read the bible there is some hardcore screwed up crap in there!! And like its been mentioned..the REALITY is that the bible HAS BEEN rewritten time and time again and bottomline even the original text was in fact written by A MAN..... As for where they get their info on other religions (Wicca and otherwise).....honestly I think they make it up as they go along...Look at the big Pokemon crazy that went on a few yrs back..AND Disney movies!! there was a HUGE stink about those too and how they were evil etc etc!! Its CRAZY!! So yes I truly believe they make it up as they go along and then of course word of mouth stands true to its core.... "when someone says something GOOD it gets passed around..but when someone says something BAD it gets passed around 10x's faster" so when ONE minister/pastor/priest makes a ridiculous claim during a sermon...the congregation naturally will spread it like wild fire to their neighbours, family, friends, coworkers etc then the next church over is talking about it in their sermons and the ball starts to really roll..... Make sense?

I think the short answer to this question is yes, Christianity as a whole, these days, is all about fear, but I don't think that it started out that way. As a pagan, I recognize the awesome PR that Jesus got after he walked on the earth as a man, and I think his ideas were spot on...it's his followers that gave Christianity a bad name in the end claiming everything they did, good and bad, was done in HIS name, and not in their own. There has been very little responsibility taken for the atrocities of the Catholic Church in the last 2000 years or so, and I think if Jesus were to be alive today (other than in the hearts of true Christians that know that there is more than one path to the Divine!) he'd be more than a little pissed at the things being done in His name. I was raised a Catholic and I don't know how many times I got my knuckles rapped in school for questioning everything I was brought up to believe (and yes, FEAR) about my religion and about God. LOL so much for the short answer... but I'll close by saying this, and it's cliché but in this case, it works: in answer to your question "where exactly do Christians get their facts about wicca?", I think the answer lies in their brand of fear: people fear what they do not understand...if you don't understand and you don't want to look stupid, what do you do? You make stuff up, don't you? Even if it makes you look more uneducated and silly...

There are parts of Christianity that make me think it's based on fear. The God of the Old Testament wasn't very nice at all really. However, when you look at things that Jesus actually said, it doesn't come across that way at all. I think that's really the issue: where individuals tend to focus their energy. I've been to some churches (as a guest with friends or family members) where they preach nothing but brimstone and hellfire, and to other churches where the message was more positive. It could be the same with Wicca. You could focus all of your energy on one part of the cycle, or one type of spellcraft. As for where Christians get their information on Wicca, here's the problem: They never get it from Wiccans. Instead, they get it from other Christians. My grandmother, who is Christian, read one article on Wicca (written by a Christian) and suddenly was telling me she knew more about it than I did. Now, I'm not Wiccan, but I have read a lot of books about Wicca, known many Wiccans, and even conducted rituals and practiced magic with people who were Wiccan. So I'd say my experience SHOULD mean that I know more, but to her the article in the paper will always be right.

No, Christianity is not about fear at all. God is a loving God and He does not want us to fear anything. The Bible says, "Do not be afraid." We are to trust in the Lord in everything and know that He is taking care of us no matter what. Lots of people misunderstand what it means to "fear the Lord". It means to be in total awe of Him. Awesome splendor. When we have the Lord in our lives, the devil really has no power. Yes, he will tempt you to sin and sometimes we will give in to him, but God is also a very forgiving God. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place so that we may be with Him forever in Heaven. That is the greatest Gift of Love. To know the Lord is to know peace.

Religion is a form of social control. Fear is one of the most effective ways to achieve this. Combine fear and religion, and you have a winner!

I am a Christian, and I am sad to learn that mostly the "christians" you know appear fearful and condemning to you. I believe Christianity is not about fear, it is about love, God's love for us. I don't understand why some of us should be rude with each other when we discussed about our different faiths, wouldn't it be more peaceful if instead of looking for the faults of each other, learn to respect the belief of one another? I'm sorry if other christians tried to force their beliefs on you or if they made you feel bad, it shouldn't be that way. What each of us should share to one another is love and understanding, that is the main point of any religion anyway. By the way, forgive me but I am not familiar with wiccan. Can you tell me something about it? Is it a religious belief? what are your paractices, etc.?

I honestly feel that much of Christanity is based on fear. It's been this way since that religion came into being and they wanted to make sure it was the dominate way of life. They wanted to make sure everyone was afraid of these so called 'devil worshippers' that could kill anyone by using harmless herbs and a candle. They want everyone to believe that everything that is not Christain is evil. It's as simple as that. If you do not think like them, you're evil and you will go to Hell. Secondly, they get their information from false sources. They drum up their own information to make religions, other than theirs to sound like horrible, primitive stuff that will only land you a one way ticket to Hell. The worse they make it sound, the better off they think they'll be with followers.

Hmm..it's hard not to generalize things in this area for me. And I've always strove to not generalize anything..so I'll try my best to try to work this out fairly here in words from my scrambled-ish thoughts at this danged hour in the morning lol. Okay..a majority of people it seems, in christianity and its many sects are followers. They don't -really- look into anything themselves, they take the words of their pastors as plain truth and don't try to back it up through their own research. And unfortunately christianity's seen quite alot of corruption, especially in pastors, priests, church leaders, etc as of late. They almost always have I guess. This greatly contributes to the fear thing. Another's not even based off of what they believe is true. It's based off of paranoid people they know who watched a fictional book or movie someplace..or something extremely similiar, and in their panic, they get misinformation. They don't truly study what their own religion says..and they jump to conclusions. Not taking their own holy book as a whole but picking one small verse. Which kinda defeats the purpose. Their own religion doesn't teach fear. People teach, manipulate, and control through fear. In the old days the church would use scare tactics to gain converts because they believed it was the right thing to do..even though it truly wasn't right to 'force' them to join a religion they niehter understood or had time to question or study for themselves. It was the whole 'control the mass population by keeping them stupid' plan..and unfortunately this has never worn off in virtually any aspect of our society. Everywhere you look you see the same thing. In a sense, many are taught that their bodies are something to be ashamed of. Their being human as something wrong with them. So they disconnect from themselves..they basically lose who they are..and blindly follow what they're told to. Whether they meant to or not. Again, this is not limited to christianity. It's just people lol. People and their problems. Someday I hope there will be a little less fear and ignorence. Things'll probably be a little better off then.

I think it depends on what church you choose. I've seen scary Hell and Fire Preachers and nice preachers. When I was a kid Catholics could not go to any other church nor could any one go to theirs. Some evangelicals would have us believe like in the "Left Behind" series that the true believers will go to Heaven at the Rapture. The rest of us will have to learn to accept and trust God before they can go. I agree and have always argued that the Bible has been retranslated so many times and into so many languages it can't possiblely be literal(but don't tell my son-in-law). There is a church here in Houston whose Pastor has a different outlook. He preaches that God loves us and wants us to have the best life possible. I have never been to his church which is one of the largest in the country but I watch the services on tv and have read his book. His name is Joel Osteen and his book is "Your Best Life Now" I like is positive, upbeat sermons.

Christianity is based on love not fear-- for God is love. The fear those Christian is telling you is what we called the 'holy fear': it is the fear of God's holiness. Because of the sinful nature of people, most of them stay away from God, they doesn't need God, they don't want His rules and they really didn't understand Him. But some Christians also thought of the fear of God's wrath which is hell. Remember, God also has personality, He knows love but He also gets angry-- angered to those people who reject, disrespect and discredit Him in spite of loving them (Jesus Christ came here to the world in order to save people's soul from being destroyed in hell).

Christianity is not about fear at all, unfortunately there is a wide section of people who call themselves Christians for a lack of a better word who really are not. Some people believe you are a Christian if you go to church at least on Easter and Christmas, if you belong to a certain denominations, if you attend church faithfully, you are a moral person. The list goes on and on. These people tend to know just enough to get themselves in trouble, but not enough to understand it. Proverbs 2 tells us if we will seek after the Lord's wisdom, knoweledge and understanding as for hid treasure, we will find it, but most people don't want to. They want to be spoon fed, then when they try to share what they believe they have nothing to offer. They become a stumbling block to others who would like to understand, but can't make sense out what others are telling them. If you would like to understand the God of the Bible. Tell the Lord "I don't know who you are personably, but I want to know more about you. Show me your knowledge and bring people into my life to help me understand it. Read the Bible so you can understand the history of the Bible and God's dealings with man, but also pray every day that the Lord reveal himself to you personally."

I think that Christianity is absolutely based on fear. First Christians were victims, remember! In medieval times they were ruling all Europe, and their power was based on fear of the God. They invented which hunt, chrono crusades and many other "nice" things. I recommend you to check out German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and his views on Christianity even before Wiccan. I think his point is clear: Christianity has 2 thousand year history of fear, violence, sorrow; and the powerful of them mix it up with politics and speculate on it.

Christianity is not all about fear, its all about faith, salvation and redemption

The question you are asking is more about the people practicing Christianity than it is about Christianity itself. There are those who don't understand it and their belief is based in fear. But that isn't a reflection on Christianity. The Bible is clear that we are not to live in fear and that if your understanding is correct you will not be in fear. There are fewer Christians who understand this than there are who don't, I'm afraid, and it gives us a bad name. In addition to that, the popularity of Christianity has caused a lot of unscrupulous people to ride its coattails and try to use it for their own selfish purposes. They are also not a good representation of the true beliefs of those who follow Jesus and they often use fear to motivate their followers (usually for their own benefit). But hopefully, since you understand what it is like to have your religion misjudged, you will take care not to misjudge Christianity.

I am a Christian, Roman Catholic in particular. Christianity is all about Love. And it is manifested in John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotton Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." and the next verse goes " Fod God did not send His Son to the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him. " To reflect on what the Bible says is the best way to understand what Christianity is. Well, whatever discussion is made, we will all find the answer when it's time to leave this earthly world.

Living in a country where Christianity is the dominant religion, Wicca is perceived to be something evil. A pastor friend of my mom used to give us Bible study sessions before they moved to the suburbs, according to what he taught us, the Bible spoke of the Pagans, Wiccans, and those who do not accept and worhsip Jesus into their lives are agianst him. There's also a bible verse that teaches people to stay away from those who worship earthly things and that they are instruments of the devil against god. This is what Christians believe, they base their lives on the Bible and nothing else. I for one keep an open mind about Wiccans.

WOW, I must admit that I didn't read past the first page of this topic because I was so disheartened to see how many Christians don't even understand their religion. With that being said, I will say this. I grew up Southern Baptist which does preach hellfire and damnation if you don't "follow the law". Honestly, it's almost like if you can't be perfect, then why bother? And that's why so many people get away from church, I think, because most of them are so uptight. It amazes me to no end. I always had a problem with the things I was being taught and the idea that a "woman" couldn't speak in conference. It just didn't make sense that God would give us "women" some of the greatest blessings in the world but want us to speak in conference through our husband? Anyway, for many years, I just didn't go to church because I didn't feel like they were even on the same plane as me. I've always thought that having faith meant that God did certain things for us so that we don't have to feel guilty if we do something that is "wrong", we can simply ask forgiveness and it is granted. There is no fear in that to me. That is confidence that no matter what I do, I can be forgiven. No matter how bad life is, I have faith that it will get better because why would God put all of these beautiful things here for me to enjoy and then want me to be emotionally miserable. I'm not buying it, you know? So anyway, I started going to this new church where everyone is happy and the preacher doesn't yell and scream hellfire and damnation at you. I didn't even understand the songs at first because they were none of the ones I had heard growing up. It took me months to even understand some of them, The preacher teaches about the Bible and what it says and how it applies to us today. I didn't understand why everyone looked so happy either because when I was growing up, it looked like I wasn't the only one that thought going to church was a chore. Eventually I figured out that God doesn't want us to be scared of going to hell for not believing, he just wants us to want to come to Him willingly and then rejoice in all that He can make happen for us. It's a non-denominational church and finally, I was excited about going to church. It didn't feel like a chore. I don't even have to set my alarm on Sunday. God wakes me up. I also feel that everyone who practices some type of religion is okay because I believe that God speaks to people in different ways. I'll use Islam (jump right in there, eh?) as an example. I firmly believe that my God is their God but they have become misquided somewhat, kind of like the Southern Baptists that I grew up with. As for the Wicca facts, I don't really know a whole lot about the religion but I do have a friend that is Wiccan and I do know it's a peaceful religion, much like my Christianity. I think that anyone who is a Christian but does not understand that it's not about fear has not found the right church where God is prevalent instead of a preacher. I hope that this clears some things up for you and I will do my very best to answer any questions that you (or anyone else) would like to ask. I may not know all the answers but I will try my best.

My husband was raised Catholic whereas my family studied just about everything from Paganism to Islam. Let me tell you, this makes for some interesting conversations in my house! Actually, we steer away from the subject because he says that I am a bully. I can be a little intolerant. Why? Catholics don't read the bible. I have even heard some Baptist ministers discourage their members from reading because they would just "get confused" Un-hunh, real intelligent. Not that I think the bible is historically sound, in the least. Yet, if you are basing the salvation of your very soul on the words of this book - shouldn't you at least read it? My favorite Christian position is "It's all about faith. It's not about the intellect or what you can prove." That would be a beautiful concept, it they were to follow it. But their FEAR drives them to convert or condemn ...or kill...those who do not share their faith. The logic perhaps being that there is strength in numbers, we can't all be wrong, can we? They probably would have stoned the little boy who yelled out "The Emperor has no clothes!" The christian church has to condemn Wiccans and Buddhists, and Muslims,etc., because you threaten their illusion of superiority. If they allow too many to realize that, indeed, the Emperor has no clothes, pretty soon people are gonna realize that they've been duped. The people just might realize that if god were truly omnipotent, he would love ALL - not just them. They might realize that they don't have to buy the preacher a new Cadillac every year, they don't have to mortgage their homes for the church building fund. The faithful might start to wonder just how many hungry children could be fed if the Vatican sold a few of their paintings, cashed in a couple hundred of those fat rings they wear. Yeah, the elders of religion are scared, all right. Scared that their supplicants might,one day, not be scared.

I think a large part of Christianity, or at least some branches of it, is all about fear of going to hell, fear of God, etc... I believe in God and doing good stuff when you can but I'm not gonna go around and fear hell or anything.