It's hard to unscare people

Do you think people run around scared a lot? I do. I was interested in this piece that Canon Alan Perry wrote:

Reading the paper yesterday, I was interested in an article about the scandal of the falsified study linking childhood vaccines to autism. Although the initial study has been thoroughly discredited as a fraud, and numerous attempts to replicate the results have failed, there is still great fear that a link might exist and so parents are putting their children at risk of serious diseases by refusing vaccination. This quote from Dr Paul Offit, of Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, leapt out:

"It's very hard to unscare people. You can do study after study, but people are far more compelled by their fears than by their reason."

It strikes me that that's a pretty good description of what's going on in Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Communion Office these days. There's a lot of people who seem to be far more compelled by their fears than by their reason.

Over and over again, I find that if I act out of fear it is the wrong decision. It is a motto of mine to act only out of love, and not fear. I do get sick of feeling scared - I spent many years as a child and young adult being afraid. I think life in all its fullness is a life without fear. Let us model this as Christians, as Anglicans, as Human Beings. I am a strong believer that if we take a step backwards in the face of fear, then the fear will take a step forwards, and we will be boxed into ever smaller places. Fear stops us being free, and the Anglican Covenant is an example of the fruits of such fears.