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Special to United Methodist Insight | Oct. 21, 2025
If you’re just now joining us, welcome to the Camp Crystal Lakewood series! Head back to the first page to catch up on the story so far! In this series, we’re using slasher movie tropes to explore the some common Mainline Protestant fears of raising our youth within American Christianity.
You Don’t Believe in the Boogeyman? You should.
John and Charles are climbing the Mess Hall stairs to look for two of their missing campers. They hear an alarming crash above them! Playing off the iconic closet scene from John Carpenter’s "Halloween" (1978), I hoped to demonstrate the looming and invasive presence of Christian nationalism. There’s nowhere to hide! The Boogeyman has found you! …and very much wants you to know you are either fighting on his side, or you are the enemy!
Baber ident 300
Christian nationalism makes the flag and the cross interchangeable symbols, exchanging the suffering of the cross with a persecuted hero complex. In my country, it insists that being a “good” Christian means being a “good” American… with “good” being defined in only the most narrow of terms. Loyalty to Christ requires loyalty to the political party, and loyalty to the political party now means exclusive and unwavering loyalty to the president of that party. Christ is now the puppet of the empire, more the symbol of wealth and power than of the poor and marginalized. Christianity and patriotism become so blended together that the message of the gospel no longer makes sense apart from rhetoric of the red, white and blue.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Proverbs 9:10, NRSV*
Faith Over Fear
The phrase “faith over fear” has grown into a popular bumper sticker theology for many American Christians. It is a catchy mantra to remind us that though there is much to fear in this world, we can have assurance that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Like any catchy aphorism with a grounding in scripture, “faith over fear” can bring great comfort because it is easily recalled in times of anxiety. When I am troubled and afraid, I can remember that my life is held in the loving refuge of God.
And yet, because it is so catchy, “faith over fear” is also a slogan for all manner of beliefs. It was common during the pandemic lockdowns to use the phrase less as a comfort and more for bravado. Over time, “faith over fear” seems more to mean “disregard and deny all earthly authority, unless that earthly authority is my pastor or one very specific president and the people he approves.” In which case, I’d love to temper “faith over fear” with “facts over fear-mongering.”
When Proverbs 9:10 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, I believe the takeaway is: humility in the face of an infinite Source of Truth generates a life led by discernment. In a Universe created by a God of Truth, facts actually do matter. On a planet rich with diversity built into God’s design, perhaps we need not generate so much fear of the so-called “other.”
*New Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible. Copyright 1989, 1996 by the Christian Education Committee of the National Council of Churches of Christ USA. All rights reserved. Used by permission.