The first - "Trouble in River City," the jaw-cramp-inducing sales job from Meredith Willson's The Music Man. The second - "There are Giants in the Sky," from Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods.
I couldn't help but notice the juxtaposition. The first is a sheister attempting to sell band instruments using the ages-old "Fear-based" method. Create a fear, then attempt to fill it with your product. The second is about grace and love - a young man finds himself surrounded by giants in a land far far away, yet finds safety first in the motherly love of the female giant, and then eventually finds grace and mercy back in his own home. The first speaks of danger and protection, the second of fear and love.
Jerry Falwell fell well into a long line of preachers who use the first method. Stir up fear. Talk fast and loud and play on emotions of uncertainty and fright. The fear of hell if you sin. The fear of America falling to terrorists if we allow gays certain rights. The fear of our children living in a hellish America if we allow feminists to speak. Go back to the revival preachers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Hellfire and Brimstone preachers are famous in our land. Even our billboards have God saying "Don't make me come down there!" as if God is the angry parent, and if we don't shape up then he's gonna give us a whuppin!
So they create fear - fear of hell, fear of gays, fear of feminists, fear of God, fear of the unknown - and they they sell you their nicely packaged product ("I heard there's going to be a boys' band!"). In this case, their product is a certain religio-political worldview. Vote a certain way. Believe a certain way. Behave a certain way. Fight back against the gays and feminists and democrats in the name of Jesus! Pray this prayer and you'll be safe from hell! (Get you kids in the boys' band to keep them away from the pool hall where they say things like "so's your old man!") Fear based religion. Fear based political work. I made you afraid. Now I'm going to sell you my product.
Compare that to "Giants in the Sky." Where Jack finds himself in a strange land, in great danger, and someone "comes along the hall to swallow you for lunch." And you know your own fear - "your heart is lead and your stomach stone and you're really scared being all alone." And the answer "And you scramble down and you look below. . .The roof, the house, and your mother at the door, The roof, the house, and the world you never thought to explore. . ." It's about coming home. It's about grace. It's about finding love and acceptance. It's the story of the prodigal son who comes home to find his father waiting at the gate, and then running to meet him on the way.
Which is the biblical image? I have to say the latter. While I dare not judge the eternal state of Falwell's soul, I grieve for the way he (and those like him) chose to sell a God of fear and hatred, for the way they tried to sell that God through fear like Harold Hill tried to use "the presence of a pool hall" to sell his band instruments. The Bible speaks to the reality of judgment, yes, but the overall message is one of grace to people who are broken and lost, who just want to come home, who find that God has been patiently waiting all along. Would that the Church could speak that message - one of love, compassion, and healing, waiting for the wanderers to come home again. There might just be a little less anger and division out there.
