Target, Bathrooms, & The Paralyzing Power of Fear

Last updated on: May 3, 2016 at 6:32 pm by Brandan Robertson

Target, Bathrooms, & The Paralyzing Power of Fear 2016-05-03T18:32:51-04:00 Brandan Robertson

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Fear. The fear that I was taught to embrace as a conservative evangelical was the reason that cracks began to form in the shell of my blind allegiance to the doctrines and dogmas that I had been implored to believe in. I was taught to fear hell, fear God, fear modern technological innovations and anyone politician who suggested a peace plan for the Middle East because these were a sure signs that the anti-Christ was about to rise and the end of the world was near. I was also told that I should fear progressives, Muslims, and of course, the LGBT+ community, all of which had agendas to undermine Christianity and destroy culture as we know it. Fear, in a very real way, was the basis of my entire faith as an evangelical Christian.

Fear is an incredibly powerful tool to gain the unwavering allegiance of the masses. Fear causes people to buy in to entire worldviews and ensures that they won’t even dare stepping out of line or thinking another way. When I was a conservative evangelical, I couldn’t even bring myself to read a book by someone that had been deemed a “heretic”, for I feared that I would become deceived, and God-forbid, buy in to their dangerous ideas. Instead of actually engaging with those who had different perspectives, I condemned them. I made sure that everyone knew how dangerous and damnable they were. I would often join the restless mobs of other conservative evangelicals, shouting “Crucify them!”, believing that I was doing the very will of God by protecting the “Truth”.

I believe that this fear is the driving force behind so much of what we are seeing in our culture today, especially coming from the conservative evangelical world. Fear drives us to the most irrational and harmful behavior, and gives us a “morally superior” justification for our damaging behavior. Yesterday, news broke that a conservative Christian group had been sending heterosexual, presumably Christian, men in to women’s bathrooms in Target stores to prove just how easy it would be for sexual predicators to abuse Target’s new trans*-friendly bathroom policy to sexually abuse women and children. When I read this report, my heart sank into my stomach and I felt the color flush out of my face. I continued clicking around social media to find out more and just a few clicks later, another article appeared that showed video of Christian activists entering Target stores and shouting through the aisles, “God didn’t make transvestites, choose this day whom you will serve.”

In the moment when my blood began to boil, I remember that it was not more than five years ago that I was doing the exact same thing as a young, conservative evangelical boy. And I remembered just how afraid I was. And it became crystal clear to me that the conservative religiopolitical establishment had done a tremendous job instilling fear into the hearts of millions of Christian Americans. Millions of conservative Christians have bought into the lies of those in power who desire only to wage and win the culture war so that they can protect their position of influence over the culture and government of the United States. For proof of just how prevalent the misinformation and fear mongering has gone, one has to look no further than the comment feeds of the news articles on which these stories appeared.

People are really, truly, afraid. They really have bought into the narrative that trans* people are actually just perverted men who like to dress like women and rape people, a notion that is easily disproven when one either meets a trans* person and hears their story or even looks at the crime logs surrounding rape and molestation which show that it’s infinitely more likely that a person will be sexually abused by a pastor than by a trans* person. But fear paralyzes. Fear prevents us from seeing the truth. Fear causes us to join the screaming mob and set the world on fire. Fear causes us to demonize. Fear allows us to be taken advantage of and used for agendas that we cannot see. And this religiously motivated fear is what I believe is moving so many millions of Christians to quite literally terrorize women, children, trans* people, and any person (or store) who stands to protect their basic human rights.

The ironic thing is, however, that according to the Christian Scriptures, fear is the opposite of love. Fear doesn’t come from God. Fear has no place in the life of the follower of Jesus. In the Christian Scriptures, God is defined as “love”, and “love cast’s out fear.” This image reminds me of the one painted by Jesus in Luke 10:18 where he describes Satan being “cast out” from heaven. If God is love, the enemy is fear. The power of fear is strong. It truly binds up the hearts and minds of those who give themselves over to it. But fear is also easily expelled through proximity to the very thing or person one is fearing. My fear disappeared when I began to meet the very people I had been demonizing for so many years. As it turns out, Catholics, Atheists, Muslims, gays, and democrats were really beautiful people. Sure, we had our disagreements, but they were not the wicked, demon-possessed enemies of the Gospel that I had been trained to believe that they were.

I believe that the vast majority of people who are boycotting Target and entering into women’s bathrooms to “prove a point” are a truly captive people. They are held captive by fear and ignorance, unable to see the truth that is right before their eyes. They are being driven to unbelievable and destructive actions that are costing real lives because they have bought into the narratives of fear spun by the powers and principalities that be. And I believe that all it takes to shatter this mass delusion is for the masses to come into contact with real, live, trans people* who have already been using the bathroom in the stall next to them for decades without them even realizing it. The lies that they have believed about everyone that they view as the enemies can be so easily shattered when they come into relational proximity to the very people that they fear. Because it is in that relational proximity that love begins to emerge. And even in cases where real, person to person relationships are not an option, through the power of social media, anyone can meet and hear the stories of our perceived “enemies”.

If you’re a conservative evangelical who is truly disturbed by Targets decision to allow people to chose the bathroom that corresponds with their correct gender identity, I challenge you to take a step back and to listen to the many stories of trans* people that are available to you right here, right now. Below is a list of just a few trans* individuals that you would do well to hear from. If you truly believe your position is right, then you have nothing to fear. Don’t take my word for it, accept my challenge, and take a few minuets to hear from just a few trans* voices:

And to the progressive world, remember. We are fighting not against flesh and blood as the Apostle Paul writes, but against disembodied fear. And the only way to attack fear is through love. Love that steps back and sees the humanity of those doing the most heinous behaviors, and instead of returning an eye for an eye, choses to extinguish the raging fires of fear through love. Love that speaks up, love that defends and protects, love that uplifts the unheard stories of those perceived to be the “enemy”. We might be able to dismantle the entire machine of fear, but I guarantee that we will change some hearts and minds and curb some of the violence and bigotry that currently is filling our department stores. Love shown to me by those I feared the most is what liberated me from captivity to my fear and bigotry. And I truly believe, deep in my bones, that love alone will have the last word today.

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