In a column this week on David Brooks's new book, Rod Dreher admitted, “my politics are driven entirely by fear of the Left, specifically on matters of religious liberty and social policy.”

As always, Rod writes with a searing honesty, but his self-assessment also exposes the weakness of his political outlook. Christians should be a fearless people with a fearless politics, a politics that fears nothing but the living Lord.

Some years ago, I wrote the following in an Easter homily:

We have nothing to fear. Nothing. Jesus conquered fear, and sent His Spirit to form a fearless people. That’s the whole point of the resurrection, that’s the whole goal of Easter. It has never been more necessary. In our world, the ability to live in the midst of anxiety without becoming anxious is rare, strange, and attractive. Fearlessness is one of our great evangelistic weapons, as we follow the Risen Jesus, who tells us, again and again, “Do not be afraid.”

Death died when Jesus went to the cross, and in His resurrection He has triumphed once for all over the tomb. If death is dead, what is left to fear? The most fearsome thing in the world – the grave, death, the end – has been tamed. Death cannot touch you. Death cannot harm you, nor can any of the thousand little deaths that threaten us every day. Jesus won, and so now neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither height nor depth nor any other created thing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Risen Lord. Therefore, once again, and forever: Do not be afraid.