Daughter-Father Dance Podcast
Episode 9: Be Not Afraid
TRANSCRIPT

SHOW INTRO

[00:00:00] Jenée Arthur: Okay. So today let's talk about a subject that I think is at the root of a lot of the world's problems both now, and as far back as humankind has been here—and that is fear. Do you want to take that ball or do you want me to say anything

[00:00:52] Gene Arthur: As far back as humankind . Wow. That's,uh, we go back that far, we gotta go to the beginning.
And that means Adam and Eve.

[00:01:04] Jenée Arthur: Oh no, not them again. Damnit!

Can we fast forward to like current events, regardless of the origin of 'fear' in terms of the Genesis beginning?

Would you say that? Well, let me just say what I would say... When I think about fear, I feel that if I sit with it, I can recognize anything negative, be it, you know, murder—anything that has a negative connotation, um, or that you would consider 'sin'.

I think it's stems from fear. So what I mean by that is... you look at any sort of bad, if you will, in the world, if you deconstructed that all the way back to where it came from, and I'm not talking about Adam and Eve, I'm talking about that particular person or situation and why they did these things. I believe you can take it all the way back to a foundation of.

And when you look at it like that, it opens the aperture or the lens from which we're looking a little bit more, because most negative things, you look at them and you're like, “Oh, they're horrible.” “They're murderers.” “They're bad people.”

But again, as you and I have spoken about in the past, I believe we're all created in the image of God.

So, therefore, on some level we are perfect in our essence, in the truth of who we are, but fear creeps in and causes us to do things that are against our highest good —against our true nature. And so for me, I think a lot of what's going on with the world and has, as I said in the beginning from the beginning, is based in and rooted in.

What do you think about that?

[00:02:49] Gene Arthur: Well, that's a lot to think about. First of all, if you go back to what you called the beginning, but not way back to the beginning, you have to look at yourself first. You have to look at what are you afraid of? Fear is a way of expressing concern. It's a way of identifying harmful news.

[00:03:14] Jenée Arthur: Well, what do you mean? ”It's a way of expressing concern.”

[00:03:17] Gene Arthur: Alright. Expressing concern as a father— I feared for your safety. That was a concern of mine. The concern of your wellbeing and safety. That's what I meant by that.

[00:03:33] Jenée Arthur: Okay. Well, I want to come back to that cause I have some things to say about that.

What do you think about what I said about that fear is at the root of all things that are negative or bad that we consider negative or...

[00:03:44] Gene Arthur: I've never thought about that. The depth of that, the meaning of it, where it began, how it, how do we eliminate it? Fear causes me to react. I have to make a stand. I have to be prepared.

Fear is something you want to, for the most part, avoid or get as much away from as you can. But on the other side, there's actually good fear and there's a whole lot of bad fear. The good fear is cheer. Am I doing all that I can do as a person, a husband, a father, a grandfather? That's a good fear because that makes you think about your beginning.

[00:04:34] Jenée Arthur: Being prepared or being the best, you know, worrying about whether you're the best father or grandfather. I know you didn't say worry... I look at that as not fear, but just reflection, like, you know, wanting to live your best life. And you're a walking example of that.

You are someone that I would say reflects quite often about “How can I live my best life?” “How can I be the best man I can possibly be?”

I don't think that's rooted in fear. What I want to discuss is that thing where, and I do, you know, to speak to what you said earlier about you're not used to pondering these things... I think you do this on a regular basis, Dad, like your whole fight, um, conquering 'Satan' is basically just that you're looking at ways in which fear, you know, cause as I've said before, I believe, you know, I don't know that there's truly an entity named Satan. I've never been able to wrap my brain around that because that just feels like a way that people way back in the day had to talk about the incarnation of fear because it's such a powerful force.

Fear is probably (next to love) it's the most powerful force and it's

[00:05:43] Gene Arthur: The author of life talked about.

[00:05:47] Jenée Arthur: Right. But he also said “Be not afraid.” Like he knew fear was so incessantly horrible that he spoke against it. Fear was the antithesis of what he was trying to bring to the world.

[00:05:59] Gene Arthur: I'm addressing the entity. You said about you do or do not believe that there is Satan or the devil.

[00:06:10] Jenée Arthur: Right. I don't know that. I don't I don't have any other than Jesus...

[00:06:15] Gene Arthur: What do you mean? You don't know that? So what? What you read in scripture, you don't believe it?

[00:06:20] Jenée Arthur: Jesus spoke parabolically on a lot of things. I don't know if he meant that there was some dude with horns that was in the netherworld waiting to encapsulate souls. I'm talking about, he spoke about fear from the perspective of...

[00:06:35] Gene Arthur: Well what's parabolically mean. Where the hell did you get that $12 word?

[00:06:40] Jenée Arthur: He spoke in parables. He didn't always...

[00:06:42] Gene Arthur: That's what it means?!

[00:06:44] Jenée Arthur: Yeah.

[00:06:44] Gene Arthur: Okay. But Jenée, he spoke in parables to relate a story. But there's many things that our Lord said that was not parables.

[00:06:54] Jenée Arthur: Right. We can go down the Jesus piece. I'm just using that reference to say, I think otherwise that this isn't something you think about often because you, you just, don't, I'm thinking about fear with the word F-E-A-R and that it's, that the root of all things.

Like uncomfortable and unsettling and are the opposite of love are the opposite of good. I'm just saying for the sake of this conversation that you do think of that often, because you are one of the biggest proponents of abolishing Satan (i.e. abolishing fear). I'm putting it in context to what I'm saying— fear , and that you actually aren't void of thinking about this because your whole life is about making sure the good rises and, and Satan, as you call it falls.

[00:07:45] Gene Arthur: Okay. You're using the examples of your father because you know me and you, you from our conversations and being raised by this family, you understand that? I meant that as a sit around the family room talking, we don't talk about stuff like this. I am constantly aware of that for the responsibility that I have as a husband and a father.

That's what I meant by that. And I know that when you said I'm constantly— but it's only constantly because of the responsibility that I have.

[00:08:26] Jenée Arthur: Right. And I didn't mean that in any sort of derogatory way. It is an acknowledgement of quite the opposite of you, don't think about these things. I think you live your life fighting fear, fighting the, what I'm asserting as Satan being the antithesis or, excuse me, the incarnation of fear. Because for me, I don't look at when my, in my prayer life, I don't look at I'm fighting against Satan. I look at I'm fighting against the greatest evil, which is fear. Because I believe Satan is only an incarnation of fear and I'm looking at it from, you know, the ethereal law. There is love and there is fear and one of them abolishes the other, and that is love abolishes fear. The light's always going to win. That's just how it was made. God is eternal light.

[00:09:14] Gene Arthur: Go back on to what you said about Satan is incarnated by fear.

[00:09:20] Jenée Arthur: No, Satan is the incarnation of fear. Satan is the anthropomorphicized symbol of fear. It's like putting a person to fear. Like we've got to put it...

I'm asserting that that was because for whatever reason, we need to talk about something outside of us that we can fight. But the truth is— what's inside, the fear that's inside of us is the bigger evil.Satan could be an entity or not an entity. I don't know Dad, have you met him? Do you know? He's never walked up to you and said, “Hi Gene, I'm Satan.”

I'm saying that that incarnation of that entity that we've made him into a being or her, or it.

[00:10:00] Gene Arthur: We, we didn't do it. God did it.

[00:10:03] Jenée Arthur: Well, the story's about bring him ... or whatever.... I don't know if he has a gender... bring Satan into being the stories. Yeah. The stories that were written.

[00:10:14] Gene Arthur: So your point about Satan is he doesn't exist only in fear.

[00:10:19] Jenée Arthur: Two ways of talking about fear. Fear is fear. I think it's the harshest and the cruelest of emotions or states of being there is, and that the other way of speaking about that state of being that root of all evil is Satan.

[VOICEOVER] Okay. Let's get straight to the point. I was unsuccessful in making with dad, not from any fault of his, but because I was going in circles.

Bottom line is I don't believe in an entity named Satan. I believe that long ago, someone needed to put a face and a name on something outside of them to fight against for some noble pursuit of eradicating the bad things that actually stem from inside of us—not from some horned being. Talk about the greatest affirmative responsibility—”Satan made me do it.”

I think Satan was one of the most remarkable make-believe figure imagined by minds that had to make sense of bad things. I'm saying we have to look inside for that. And the only thing that can conjure the types of behavior we can deem bad or evil—is fear.

[00:11:27] Gene Arthur: Okay, so if you want a perfect world, you want to get rid of fear? So nobody fears anything. Is that what you're saying?

[00:11:36] Jenée Arthur: So nobody's actions are rooted in fear…because I think intention is everything.

[00:11:40] Gene Arthur: Okay. So that's— okay. I think I'm getting to where you’re… intentions are rooted in fear.

[00:11:44] Jenée Arthur: Well…

[00:11:45] Gene Arthur: I don't know if it's fear, other than opposition are different opinions.

[00:11:54] Jenée Arthur: Well, sure. That comes into play, but I'm saying, what are those opinions rooted in? Are they rooted in… Okay, let me say it a different way. Like if you look out— we have eyeballs and we look at the world a certain way, or we look at the world. I

f you take that metaphorically and look at the world through the lens of the world as bad and evil… You are going to see bad and evil. If you look at the world as it is beautiful, it was made by God. It's a gift for us. It is a beautiful, lovely thing. That's what you're going to see.

We will always find evidence of what we're looking for, always. Because that's how existence our experiences works.

If you're looking for [bad] like… if it's a beautiful day outside and you're like, “This is a horrible day.” It's a horrible day for you!

[00:12:40] Gene Arthur: Noooooo…

[00:12:42] Jenée Arthur: Yeah.

[00:12:43] Gene Arthur: You're giving a Hallmark explanation of life.

[00:12:46] Jenée Arthur: Hallmark card explanation?

[00:12:47] Gene Arthur: No, the Hallmark movie films about life. Everything is happy and good and no fear and no judgment. No misunderstanding.

[00:12:59] Jenée Arthur: No. I'm saying that where… I'm saying that the root of what you, where you put your attention is what you're going to find.

[00:13:07] Gene Arthur: If I wake up in the morning and I feel great and everything's lovely, and then I find out something that's bad. What's what are you talking about? I don't understand. You just don't think of flowers and music all day long and not realize there's rocks and thorns that you have to walk.

[00:13:27] Jenée Arthur: No, I'm not saying that. They're not exclusive of each other. I'm saying we're looking at things two different ways. You're looking at it as fear is Satan. And I don't know, I put that in. I started off that way. Maybe you don't think fear is Satan. I'm using it as a way to distinguish what I think you fight against constantly.

I also fight against, but I call mine fear— because I think fear is at the root of every bad thing. Whereas you believe Satan is at the root of every bad thing. So I think we're saying the same thing. We're calling it different names.

[00:13:51] Gene Arthur: I would say sin.

[00:13:54] Jenée Arthur: Okay. Sin is your fear.

[00:13:57] Gene Arthur: Damn right.

[00:14:00] Jenée Arthur:But the fear I'm trying to differentiate, Dad… I'm trying to say that the F that fear like that creates evil and bad things. Nothing good comes from fear, nothing good. And I'm talking about the fear that is the opposite of love, not the fight or flight fear that we've given, been given to help protect our bodies and our environment. I'm talking about.

There's love and there's fear. They're part of the same. And fear is at the root of everything. Bad people that murder somewhere deep down inside, they have a fear. I don't know what it is. They're inadequate. They need power. They're afraid they're going. I don't know. I can't speak to why. Cause I don't… I'm not a murderer

[00:14:48] Gene Arthur: And you're also not a psychologist.

[00:14:51] Jenée Arthur: Well, true. I know, but that's… we're not having these conversations as an education. We're having them to show that we can have different perspectives and still have these conversations.

[00:15:02] Gene Arthur: Okay. What, what, uh, what are the byproducts of fear? I would say one of them is ‘worry’.

[00:15:09] Jenée Arthur: Exactly. What's another one.

[00:15:12] Gene Arthur: Uh, let me think. Snap judgment.

[00:15:15] Jenée Arthur: Yep. Snap judgment. Kind of like what I was saying about calling myself out on the last episode about evangelicals. I have a snap judgment about evangelicals because as I said, I always think they're up to no good. Which is, can we find historically evangelical beings up to no good. Heck yeah.

We can find that historically in most beings. Right. There's always going to be those people that are up to no goo. But my snap judgment is, cause I kind of have a call it a fear or a reservation about those people. And so, yes, I agree with you. Snap judgment is a by-product of fear. Worry. Totally a by-product of fear.

If you, if we know that we are in the hands of the light, the Source of All Things, the Light, God. Then worry should be, shouldn't be something that comes into our mind. And if it does, we can eradicate it.

[00:16:11] Gene Arthur: Well, we're going to have fear.

[00:16:13] Jenée Arthur: Right.

[00:16:14] Gene Arthur: But what overcomes fear is peace. And then if you look for what causes you peace and gives you peace.

That smooths the fear. It maybe doesn't eliminate it, but maybe it subdues it.

[00:16:27] Jenée Arthur: Right.

[00:16:28] Gene Arthur: Is that a word—subdue?

[00:16:33] Jenée Arthur: Yeah. I, yes, it's totally a word.

[00:16:36] Gene Arthur: It doesn’t mean you eliminate something that means you..

[00:16:40] Jenée Arthur: You lessen it.

[00:16:43] Gene Arthur: Put it on hold. Is that what it means? Subdued?

[00:16:46] Jenée Arthur: Well, it means it can't, it's not being.When you subdue something (and I don't know the Merriam dictionary definition of it off the top of my head), but when you, when something's subdued, it means it's suppressed or held down. It's not allowed.

[00:16:56] Gene Arthur: Okay. Okay. Maybe suppress is the better word.

[00:16:58] Jenée Arthur: Yeah.

[00:16:59] Gene Arthur: You can suppress fear.

[00:17:01] Jenée Arthur: Absolutely.

[00:17:02] Gene Arthur: We can't eliminate it, but we can suppress.

[00:17:06] Jenée Arthur: Absolutely.

Of I'm afraid or I feel fear, or even, I think anger is rooted in fear. I think the only reason people get angry is if you, again, and I'm not a psychologist— as you've clearly pointed out, but in my experience in life, if I deconstruct why I'm angry or why I'm frustrated or whatever, I can always take it back to fear even sadness, can go, you know, fear or sadness, maybe they're concurrent in that in anger, but you can always take it back to, I'm not trusting the process. I'm not trusting life. I'm not trusting God. I'm not trusting that everything is going to work out right.

[00:17:44] Gene Arthur: Well that's because God made us the way he did. He knows that we're subjected to that psycho-analysis. If you want to call it. And that's why he gives us grace. Grace is what brings us back to peace.

[00:18:02] Jenée Arthur [in my best Aunt Bethany voice]: “Grace? She died 30 years ago.”

Sorry. Um…No, you're right, Dad, I think. I think grace, like, I don't know how listeners feel about that word, but I love the word ‘grace’, because, again, oh, I got to get off the evangelical piece because I'm sure people are just getting pissed at me.

I used to think of that word as a born-again Christian kind of thing. Like “They've come into grace.” You know, and it was just so melodramatic.

But you've taught me— and I don't think this so much as a kid, cause I don't think the word ‘grace’ was really in my nomenclature, our vocabulary when I was little—but grace is like one of the greatest virtues that we can have bestowed on us.

Right? Because it does keep us in a mindset of lacking fear. Um, and when you say like God's grace, you know, that's the embodiment of the very antithe… that's the antithesis of fear. That's love. Embodied, right. If you think of the most evil people you feel in the world, it's not that they were born inherently evil.

There are some weird fear underlying fear that they're not going to have enough power or money, or fear that they're going to be obsolete. So they got gotta, you know, whatever, I think fear is at the root of every evil interaction.

[00:19:21] Gene Arthur: Well, what I fear is sin.

[00:19:24] Jenée Arthur: But I think sin is fear is my point.

Okay. So let's go back to my assertion. That fear is at the root of all evil.

In the way that I've kind of described it….would you agree with that?

[00:19:38] Gene Arthur: I think it has something to do with it.

[00:19:40] Jenée Arthur: Okay.

[00:19:41] Gene Arthur: I think there's more elements involved in it, but, uh, that's a good start. The fear you're talking about is the fear that separates and divides people and doesn't unite them. And there is a fact —there is that going on.

[00:19:56] Jenée Arthur: Not just people, but ourselves. I think fear divides us from Source. Fear divides us from ourGodliness and our connection to God, to connection to the source that is or has nothing to do with fear. Nothing about God is, has fear related to it.

God is love. God is all things that are good.

So herein lies that my justification for fear being the other side of the coin of love. It's there because it's the opposite. Everything we have is duality, right? There's love. There's light. There's darkness. There's good. There's bad. There's love. There's fear. The absence of love is fear and vice versa.

The absence of fear is love. And I'm saying that if we could just focus more on that other side of the coin— Love, then all these things… even the divisiveness that these, this podcast is trying to help bridge the gap or bridge the divide would be no longer—if we didn't have fear.

Fear is the root of everything that's wrong with the world. That's what I'm asserting.

[VOICEOVER] With that assertion, Dad and I bid you farewell until next week.

And if fear creeps into your feelings, your psyche, your emotions—reach for love. It's way more powerful than constantly anticipating some creepy creature trying to steal your soul.

Or think of it this way. If you believe that ‘what you seek you shall find’—why would you constantly be looking for, or fighting against, something dark and sinister rather than standing in the knowing that the light from which you've been created always wins.

“Love one another” and “Be not afraid.” It seems pretty straight forward to me.

Thanks again for being with us.

See you next time.

Division is Optional