In the children’s game of Rock, Paper, Scissors: Fear is represented by the stones that cause us to stumble, Reason is the pair of Scissors that cuts away falsehood, and Faith is the insubstantial seeming Paper that wraps up our fears and overcomes them. So, Rock (fear) breaks Reason (scissors), Scissors (Reason) cuts undeveloped Faith, and Faith, as always, defeats Fear.
This helps us remember the importance of good faith development in the church. We should never be afraid of reason. It should be invited into our discussions with our youth and into our church council meetings. Faith should not make us afraid, but give us an awesome power to defeat our animal passions.
I got this gem from Al Gore’s book, “The Assault on Reason” (p 45). This book has helped me to see the churches role in restoring a balanced, non-partisan, American political dialogue. Hope to speak more about this in future blogs @ billkemp.info