#BannedBookSkyClub discussion of #TheFireNextTime by James Baldwin. In The Fire Next Time, Baldwin talks about how fear drove him into the church. How did this make you think about the relationship between fear and religion? - ThreadSky

retired-librarian.bsky.social • 97 days ago

#BannedBookSkyClub discussion of #TheFireNextTime by James Baldwin.

In The Fire Next Time, Baldwin talks about how fear drove him into the church. How did this make you think about the relationship between fear and religion?

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old-news.bsky.social•96 days ago

I’m Catholic. We are all about fear😉

amwesselmann.bsky.social•87 days ago

I came here with this thought! Even in historical fiction I have read recently, and conversations with Catholic friends (“what about the chiiiiiillldreeeennn?”), there is so much fear. But He’s supposed to be a loving God so…???

dianeturnbull62.bsky.social•97 days ago

It's a rampant response these days, and it seems it always has been.

thesjadventures.bsky.social•90 days ago

I think for many people from all different cultures and backgrounds turning to religion through fear is something we probably all have in common. I’m not particularly religious but in my most difficult times when I’ve been terrified I’ve prayed.

congas00.bsky.social•96 days ago

Fear drives people towards community(religion) then and today. This quote had me applauding, “If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.” I’m not religious but amen to that.

retired-librarian.bsky.social•96 days ago

That quote is particularly timely.

congas00.bsky.social•96 days ago

Yes.

fergss.bsky.social•97 days ago

I grew up in the fear of religion, always being told to be grateful that I had nothing to fear. It was only in leaving the religion that I left behind the fear

v13enos7.bsky.social•86 days ago

Yes! Same and same. It took some time for me to shake all that religious fear away. This book, Baldwin, really affirmed for me how that was the right choice.

hearmeroar11.bsky.social•97 days ago

Fear creates followers. In my experience it's used as the only salvation for the guilt a person feels for being imperfect. what's important is to learn from your choices. I find that religion is often a crutch used to justify choices or actions.

jwheatspear.bsky.social•97 days ago

Not long ago I saw a PBS documentary on the Black church and last night saw the beginning of another “Gospel” — for me, just the singing would have offered sufficient solace but I think I read that he was raised Pentecostal and preached himself in youth but later rejected religion.

scooper1958.bsky.social•92 days ago

I regularly attend a Reconstructionist (progressive) Jewish Torah group. We are often reminded that the writers of the Tanakh (Old Testament) often linked fear and religion. Many fundamentalist Christians still do that.

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