thread: 2007-01-10 : Some questions about worship
On 2007-01-12, JamesNostack wrote:
I wonder if the reaction to "God-fearing" so far is mainly due to how our enormously secular, liberal, feel-good culture conceives of Deity. "Oh, of course God-fearing is for someone who's kind of messed up, or psychologically inadequate, or poorly adjusted. God is to be reverenced, but not feared, silly rabbit!"
But I totally don't think that's been a common understanding of the term these past millennia.
Take a look at the crazy shit in the Old Testament, with Space YHWH showing up every so often to tell you where to get off. If you had those experiences, or thought they were likely to happen to you, damn right you better be scared of God. Having an all-powerful authoritarian space monster insisting that you leave your homeland, or breed with this woman, or kill these unbelievers—when you don't want to do any of these things—that's a scary-ass thought.
I think we don't groove with the "God-fearing" meme to the extent that we don't think we're going to be called to sacrifice our first born son, build an ark, or smite whoever it was God was always wanted smitten. That concept of religious obligation is extremely aberrant in modern American society, but the concept is real enough around the world and through history.
