Fear of the Unfamiliar

Get Out of the Ghetto!

By Evelyn Hibbert

Have you ever visited a mosque? I attended an extremely well-run open house at a mosque. For one member of our group, however, the experience was frightening. When the call to prayer sounded, she became agitated and could not leave the building fast enough. This person has a heart for Muslims, but fear caused her to run away. Although there may be some spiritual dimension to her reaction, her fear was mostly a result of a great deal of unhelpful, anti-Muslim rhetoric in the media and traditional Christian circles.

I am not going to comment on anti-Muslim rhetoric. Instead, I bring the story up to help you to understand why we, as Christians, have to go out of the Christian ghetto if we want to be effective.

A very natural human trait is to be afraid of the unknown. If it has been poisoned with stories (true and false) of prejudice and mistreatment, the unknown can be terrifying. Centuries of Christian-Muslim inter-ethnic tension, exploitation and prejudice by Christian colonial powers have resulted in fears which make it virtually impossible for even genuine seekers to cross the threshold into Christian buildings and meetings. Their fear is every bit as real as the fear that drove my friend out of the mosque.

This kind of thinking requires a major paradigm shift in the church. We have to go OUT! We need to go where the people are. We need to be vulnerable. We need to learn how to identify and confront our fears in Jesus’ name. After all, the very worst that could happen is that we go home to be with Jesus. Where is the fear in that

> Jesus conquers all fear!

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