Why "Faith Over Fear" T-Shirts Creep Me Out

I think it happened a few months into the pandemic: I started seeing the phrase “faith over fear” popping up everywhere. It was in social media bios, on protest signs, and emblazoned across t-shirts. The phrase’s ubiquity seemed to correlate with anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests. While the phrase in itself could mean many things, to this day if I happen to see a person wearing this tee, I tend to assume “they are probably not vaccinated.” It’s like the inverse of one of those “In this house we believe” yard signs that sprung up all over Seattle after Trump was first elected.Heretic Hereafter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Merging of Political Party & ReligionIt’s tragic that COVID safety measures became so quickly polarized. I wonder how many lives were unnecessarily lost because wearing masks and getting vaccinated became associated with being liberal. I still believe that if we’d been able to have productive dialogue, we might have reached a middle ground on things like school reopenings. Instead, each side dug in their heels, painting the other as completely unreasonable.“Faith over fear” feels of a piece with the Christian Nationalism that is ascendant in our current administration. It feels untethered to reality, as if magical thinking can protect us from bad things happening. It’s like those unsympathetic church ladies who tell you that your cancer or car accident is “part of God’s will” and that your dead grandma is “in a better place.” Or maybe the phrase is a justification to do whatever you want wrapped in bad theology: people will die, but probably not me, so who cares? The Two Types of FreedomI remember learning in high school government class that there are two types of freedom: freedom to and freedom from. i.e. if any rando has the freedom to own an assault rifle that means some of us won’t have the freedom from being shot. Freedom from masking might mean others don’t have the freedom to survive COVID. I’m not saying it’s an easy calculus. Life is packed with risks that we as both a society and as individuals choose to mitigate or ignore. The same CDC that pushed masking also strongly suggests you never consume raw cookie dough. Riding in a car is one of the most dangerous things many of us do every day and never think about.Is there a spiritual yardstick we can use to assess risk? Are there some lessons from the Bible that can help us determine when fear is a reasonable response?The Bible on Fear…The Bible talks about fear often. “Fear not!” is one of its most-repeated commands, often uttered by some kind of angel/supernatural being to apparently terrified mortals. Yet this reassurance is contrasted with oft-quoted Proverbs 9:10, “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”So which is it? Fear God or fear not? Should we just have faith that everything will work the way we want it to just because we’re Christians? (And obviously bad things never happen to Christians!)…Is Profoundly MisunderstoodAs I set out to explore fear as a topic, reader Darla recommended the book How Not to Be Afraid: Seven Ways to Live When Life Feels Terrifying, by Gareth Higgins. Higgins knows fear well, having grown up queer in Belfast during The Troubles. In this wise little book he covers a gamut of fears from rejection to death.I really enjoyed this book (the audio version is read by the author, in a beautiful lilting accent.) I’ll probably buy a hardcopy so I can vigorously highlight and reread, but what struck me on first listen were two points:* The verse “Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” is profoundly misunderstood. Higgins writes:“It doesn’t mean that there’s a scary, bearded guy in the sky who loves you so much that he will kill you if you don’t agree with him. It means that becoming wise begins with honoring reality. There’s a healthy way to be afraid that helps us live better and an unhealthy one that makes us sick. There’s a well-worn, but sometimes hidden, path that can help us discern the difference.”(emphasis mine.)As someone who grew up with alcoholics and saw first-hand the destruction of denial, this idea of “honoring reality” strikes me as wise. We can’t get anywhere unless we are willing to face things as they are, even when it is scary or hard.And having discarded my own ideas of God as a “scary bearded guy” I like thinking of God in these more abstract terms: God is ultimate reality, God is the love that underpins the universe. God as the source of all creation. * That “Our fears are reactions to the stories we believe.”Higgins is a big believer in examining our stories. Why do we fear this thing? What are we telling ourselves about it? Is it possible another story is true? It’s not that we should never be afraid of anything, rather, we have to hold the hand of fear and bring it to reality, asking ourselves: is this thing I’m afraid of actually that scary?On Discerning the DifferenceYet all this wisdom is often easier to hear than implement. In the case of COVID, it was difficult to figure out what reality actually was. Was COVID “just another flu”? Or was it a catastrophic, world-altering event? Much of peoples’ individual responses hinged on how they answered that question. To make a play on a George Carlin quote, “Have you ever noticed that anybody who masks more than you is an idiot, and everyone who masks less is a lunatic?”Much of the trouble with COVID was its novelty. Scientists were doing their best to give us good information, some of which proved useful (social distancing, masks) and some of which didn’t (wiping down groceries, zoom school.) Perhaps in situations where we don’t have the full information, all we can do is give each other grace and try our best. Yes, grace. Even for those wearing “faith over fear” tees.What do you think of “faith over fear”? Am I alone in thinking this is an antivax shirt? Looking back on COVID, what do you think we should’ve/could’ve done differently?As always, I love to hear feedback from readers in the comments, via email, or DM.Heretic Hereafter is a reader-supported publication. 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