Our Danger Narrative

Words and rhetoric have more power than we tend to allow. The Ancient Hebrews understood words to have a life of their own. They considered speech to be creative and to act upon the world. A word spoken cannot be recalled, and it lives on beyond its hearing. We don’t seem to agree very much with that notion. It would seem we have come to a place where what is said or written has little or no meaning or importance of its own, much less living on beyond a first expression.

At some point, however, words are indeed creative. They not only express ideas, they also work to create a new reality. “Stranger danger!” “Go back where you came from!” “We don’t want their kind around here!” “Stand your ground!” “Don’t talk to strangers!” “Terrorist threat.” “Yankee, go home!” “Protect our borders!” “It’s a matter of national security.” “It’s a dangerous world out there.” “They are coming for your kids!”

We are inundated by messages that promote fear of others, portraying them as threats to ourselves, to our freedom, to the well-being of our children, to the good of society, to our culture, to our way of living. With each message, our emotions are triggered one little bit more, incrementally placing us more and more on edge as the next message comes our way. As we learn to live in unwarranted fear, our perceptions portray others much more readily as live threats. We become increasingly prone to respond in anger or violence as a result of living on edge.

At what point are we simply creating a more dangerous world and society out of our imagined fears of the other? At what point does our danger narrative multiply the conflict around us? At what point do we actually speak fear, anger, and violence into being?

We read of people being shot for ringing the wrong doorbell. Is that normal? We see increasing numbers of road rage incidents that were unheard of in decades past. What is that from? We hear stories of people pulling out a gun upon hearing an unexpected noise at the door, only to find themselves pointing a weapon at a loved one. We witness ever-growing public rhetoric of anger, hate, fear, and violence. Meanwhile, we see increases in hate crimes and mass shooting events. We’ve heard so much of dangers lurking behind every shadow, every encounter with a stranger, and every contact with those we do not readily identify with, that we expect danger to be an exponentially growing reality.

How much of that is due to the language we use, the language we hear, the voices consistently telling us to fear?

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (NRSV: Proverbs 15:1). It is ancient wisdom from an age in which words were understood to convey some kind of power. Perhaps it is time to hear those words again to determine what impact they actually have on our lives. We have options not only regarding the words we speak, but to whom we listen. It might well be that lives hang in the balance according to the character of our words.

“Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” (NRSV: Ephesians 4:29).

— ©Copyright 2023, Christopher B. Harbin 

http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

My latest books  can be found here on Amazon