| Identifying fears of the known and unknown Its not where you might expect to have your thoughts provoked. But in one of the stalls in the ladies room at Glen Mar UMC in Ellicott City, there is a sign to educate women about breast cancer. It presents an interesting notion. Fear, it says, simply means you have something more to learn. But what are people afraid of? What lessons beckon? My own fear is darkness. But an informal poll of about 25 United Methodists unearthed several others. What frightens you? people were asked. To my surprise, the first several people who answered were male pastors. Nothing, they said. They werent afraid. God was with them and had sent several angels to remind humanity to fear not. They were on the side of the angels. I cant say I have a real fear of any kind, said one pastor. Living in fear is not a part of my make-up. Another man who answered the phone in a Baltimore church explained, God does not give us a spirit of fear. You come to a point where you either believe that or you dont, he said. I believe that. I shared these reactions with several women who had gathered in a nearby cubicle in the conference center. They werent buying it. Actual expletives were used to express dismay that these men were not fearful. The women shared their fears easily, as if they had been carrying them as companions through the day. Dramatic economic hardships, growing old and helpless, mice, failure, bad things happening to loved ones, terminal illness, heights, the list went on. More phone calls, and the trend of fearless male pastors became a little shaky, as some men admitted they were afraid for societys youth that were becoming untethered from their faith. Fears of aging and becoming a burden on children and wives snuck in. Women pastors and the church secretaries who answered the phone often paused, but they found answers: traffic accidents, violence, biological terrorism, spiders. My favorite answer came from western Maryland. What frightens you? I asked. The woman answered simply: science fairs. That seemed perfect. Other remarkable fears people reported included barber shops, auditions and the Lady Elaine Fairchild puppet from Mister Rogers neighborhood. Turning to the Internet, I discovered that the Japanese fear inflation, Marylanders fear new taxes, doctors fear the new Asian bird flu and whales are losing their fear of humans. It also told me that facial expressions of fear emerge in infants between five and seven months of age, and several people believe the world is experiencing the trouble it is in because too many people do not properly fear God. I also seemed to come full circle and discovered that women in their 40s believe they have a one in 10 chance of dying from breast cancer. The real lifetime odds are closer to 1 in 250. In a study of daughters of women with breast cancer, an inverse correlation between fear and prevention was found. The more the daughter feared the disease, the less she did self-examinations of her breasts, increasing the threat that her fears would be made real. The fears turned to phobias. Take anything youre afraid of, translate it into Greek and then add phobia. (See the phobia list at www.phobialist.com.) Since so many of our pastors are fearless, I decided to look for some of our churches fears. There was catagelophobia or fear of being ridiculed; chrometophobia, fear of money; demophobia, fear of crowds; geliophobia, fear of laughter; kainolophobia, fear of anything new; kakorrhaphiopophobia, fear of fatigue; metathesiophobia, fear of changes; paralipophobia, fear of neglecting duty or responsibility; and soteriophobia, fear of dependence on others. But whats the lesson to be learned if one looks at any of these fears? Of course each person must dare to their own degree. But I find myself sitting on the side of Rosa Parks, who said, I have learned over the years that when ones mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. Its the first step, the first leap, out of contemplation thats the scariest. Jump anyway. | 
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