conveying love and hope, not fear

To speak truthfully, I am a little angry right now. An anger that I feel is completely justified. I just came across a letter that was put out by one of James Dobson's groups, Focus on the Family Action. The letter is written from the point of view of a "Christian" in 2012 if Obama wins the election next week. The thing that upsets me about the letter is very simple (and it has little to do with my political beliefs). I see it as a blatant attempt to perpetuate fear in people's hearts (particularly social conservatives). Here is a link to the article that lead me to the letter.

Now I realize that Christians have many different views on social and political issues. And in many ways, I am okay with the fact that there are differing views because even in the Bible early Christians found themselves not always seeing eye to eye (i.e. 1 Corinthians 8) and it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I think that when the disagreement happens there should be discussion rooted in love though. There should be a recognition that we have the same hope, even if we don't necessarily have the same outlook on how that hope will come to pass.

I believe the Gospel is not about fear. It's a Gospel of love and hope. And love and hope should be our message as Christians. I heard a pastor say one time that the devil really only has two tools-a fear of future and a shame of past. I think we as Christians need to be more than wary when we see the same tactics used to influence others as an attempt to support what is "right."