A Time of Fear

It was early morning, and I was walking along the downtown streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, camera in hand. Beatrice, Nebraska, has no beautiful skyscrapers, so I was taking photos. The shapes, colors, textures, and mixtures of architectural styles provided rich photographic opportunities.

My best photo was my last one; you can see the original below. One downtown building was fully reflected in another, and the little rectangles of yellow light showed which offices were occupied at that early hour.

It was my last photograph because, immediately after taking this shot, a uniformed security guard walked briskly and purposefully toward me. "You're going to have to stop taking pictures," he ordered.
"Why?" I replied.
"The owners of the buildings don't want any photos taken."
"Why?" I asked again.
"Security concerns," he explained.

I felt like arguing. I was standing in the middle of public sidewalk, a spot where thousands of people walk each day, looking up at a rather obvious skyscraper. And I'm not allowed to take a picture? Surely there's no actual law against what I just did, is there? Does he (or his bosses) really believe that the photograph I just took could be of value to terrorists?

But I decided I wasn't ready to challenge the system that day, and immediately turned off my camera and assured the security guard that I wouldn't take any more photos of buildings.

We've moved into an era of fear. We'd rather feel secure than free. Fear leads to debacles like the war in Iraq, and it feeds the immigration debates as well. I keep wondering how our world would be different if--in response to 9/11--we had invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and other Arab countries with doctors and teachers and community development workers and electricians and heavy equipment operators and agricultural experts and folks skilled in conflict resolution. What if--instead of lashing out in fear--we had led the world in an outbreak of compassion?

Reactions based in fear increase fear; fear responses decrease security. If this were a Christian country, we would be laying down our lives for the sake of our enemies, like Jesus did. But since it's not, we can practice the Christian faith ourselves, saying "no" to fear, and demonstrating how "perfect love drives out fear" (1 John 4:18).
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