Why Fear-Based Faith Falls Short

Why Fear-Based Faith Falls Short
by
August 25, 2026

Homecoming Sunday was a great celebration! It’s always great to have the Nashville Pipes and Drums in worship. Was good to see our families back from the summer and to send so many backpacks and school supplies over to Fall Hamilton! Our fall ministries and programs are up and running! This Sunday, August 30th, we will have our mission and ministry fair after the 9:30/9:40 services. This is a great opportunity to get more plugged into Woodmont for the fall. It is also an impressive display of everything that our church has to offer. Also, Dinner for Eight groups are still being formed.

We are living in an age of intense fear and anxiety, largely driven by the digital age and AI. One of the primary roles of faith and deeper spirituality is to help people face and overcome their fears in a healthy way. Benjamin Corley published a book a few years back titled “Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith.” Corley grew up in an ultra-conservative, hellfire and brimstone tradition where sin, judgment, and the wrath of God were pivotal parts of the theology. Years later, he suffered a mid-life spiritual awakening. He asked himself, “Why would God seek to punish and torture his creation? Why are so many Christians taught that we are undeserving, inadequate, and damned?” It no longer made sense in his mind. He was over it, and he’s certainly not alone.

Many in our culture have had it with the concept of a judgmental God who has it out for his people. It simply doesn’t square with the core teachings and message of Jesus Christ. Corley finally decided, “We can hold a fear-based foundational understanding of God or a love-based understanding of God, but we cannot hold both: love doesn’t fear, and fear doesn’t love.” For the biblical literalists, there is clearly a scriptural basis for this. “Let us love one another because love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, for God is love.” The passage continues, “There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear.” (I John 4) So why is there still so much fear present in religion? Corley answers, “I think our experience of Christianity, and religion in general, is usually rooted in fear because religions are designed to address the one fear we all hold in common: death.” Paul Tillich once referred to this as the ultimate fear. Fear has been the mechanism through which religion and many religious leaders have sought to control the people. But the evidence shows that people have grown weary of it. There is enough fear in this world without religion making it worse. What people are hungry for is what Jesus taught: hope, love, compassion, forgiveness, empathy, peace, and truth.

Religion that is to have a future needs to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Does that mean that anything goes? Of course not. Decisions have consequences. Humans have free will. But when faced with whether to live a life of fear or a life of love, love is the better choice. Love is what the world needs. Love is what Jesus taught. People are tired of being afraid. They are tired of worrying about what “could or might” happen tomorrow. Henri Nouwen says, “When we begin to understand at a deep, spiritual level that we live surrounded by love and in communion with God no matter what the external circumstances, we can let go of the fear that lurks on the outskirts of our minds.” Cultivating a prayer life is key in this process. For Corley, it was an intentional decision to change but one that was long overdue. It opened up an entirely new world. “Making the conscious decision to reject a fear-based God is the floodgate that leads us to experience not the loss of faith but freedom from fear-based faith in order to discover a truer and deeper faith.” We must face the harsh reality that people in this culture grow tired of living in fear, and healthy, Christ-centered religion helps us to face it and move beyond it. We all need hope, encouragement, and grace.

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