Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

 

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.  

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.  

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.  We love because he first loved us. 

        1 John 4: 16-19 NRSVue

Don't be afraid, my love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear.

Don't be afraid, my love is stronger 

and I have promised, promised to be always near. 

        More Voices 90 

I have the mute button ready when the Ontario Government indoctrination TV commercials begin during the evening news cast. Last year our incompetent and morally bankrupt  provincial government spent more than $100 million of taxpayers money pumping its own tires, a practice the Auditor General has declared as sketchy, at best, and maybe illegal.  Many of them such as the Ring of Fire commercials are deliberately misleading, touting initiatives that are actually decades away. 

The commercial that I find reprehensible at the moment is the A Safer Ontario ad which claims that: Ontario is working to protect our neighbourhoods by tackling auto theft, clearing encampments, shutting down drug injection sites near schools and daycares, building more jails and strengthening the bail system, so criminals stay behind bars.

There is no explanation of whether affordable housing is provided for those who are "living rough" or if closing down safe injection sites may actually create more risk or whether warehousing criminals does make us safer in the long run or whether denying bail will pass the legal test. These are simplistic promises based on anxiety and fear. 

There is statistical evidence that crime rates are dropping across the province and the number of murders in Toronto continues to fall. Yet we're encouraged to feel scared about our society and that Daddy Dougie will protect us. If things are so bad  just what has he been doing for the past eight years? 

It's not as though there are no concerns for public safety  -- there always are -- and we want a functioning and secure society. It's the fearmongering that is so troubling. How about using some of the $100+ million for solutions for the unhoused? 

There are many biblical verses in Older and New Testaments which encourage us to live beyond our fears with the promise that God, in Christ, is our companion in even our darkest moments. Jesus is my Saviour, not Premier Ford.