One afternoon on Maple Street, in a fictitious neighborhood near you, a peculiar event, marked by a shadowy figure, a roar, and a flash of light, disrupted the peaceful neighborhood. Although initially dismissed as a passing meteor, the sudden power outage prompted residents to discuss the situation, with suspicions arising regarding the cause. As tensions escalated, fueled by rumors of alien invasion and accusations of suspicious behavior among neighbors, fear and paranoia gripped the community, leading to tragic consequences.
Amidst growing unease, Charlie’s impulsive action of shooting a figure approaching them in the dark resulted in the death of Pete van Horn, further fueling suspicion and chaos. As accusations flew and trust deteriorated, the neighborhood descended into anarchy, with residents turning on each other in a frenzy of violence and hysteria. Unbeknownst to them, the true orchestrators of the chaos, alien observers, had only done one thing. They had only manipulated the neighborhood’s power, relying on the subsequent reaction of innate human fear and discord to fuel their plan for conquest.
As chaos reigned on Maple Street, the aliens witnessed the fruits of their strategy to conquer Earth by exploiting human weaknesses and divisions. Satisfied with the havoc they’d wrought, they ascended into their spaceship, leaving behind a neighborhood torn apart by suspicion, violence, and the realization of how easily humanity could be manipulated with fear. Through the lens of this microcosm, The Twilight Zone’s “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is a cautionary tale about the dangers of our innate biases, tribal mentality, and mob mentality when exposed to fear.
“Fear’s a dangerous thing, it can turn your heart black, you can trust. It’ll take your God-filled soul and fill it with devils and dust.” – Bruce Springsteen.
In this past month, Springfield, Ohio, has “received at least 33 bomb threats,” according to Ohio Governor DeWine. The threats began following false claims about the town’s Haitian immigrants stealing pets and causing crime. Threats of bombings and violence then surged following Trump’s debate remark about Haitians “eating the dogs.” Springfield schools were temporarily evacuated, and local Haitians expressed fear for their lives. The Republican mayor, who has repeatedly debunked the false claims, has received death threats.
The woman whose social media post helped ignite false claims of pets being eaten in Springfield, Ohio, has retracted her story, admitting that the post was based on a rumor. Yet the beat of the lies goes on with JD Vance picking up the fear-stoking baton by saying, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Vance then asserts, “I didn’t create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield, thanks to Kamala Harris’ policies,” knowing full well that the Haitians are there legally due to Biden’s policies. He further claims that murders went up in Springfield because of “Harris’s open-border policies,” when, in fact, there were more murders under Trump than Biden, and none of the Springfield murders in 2023 involved Haitians.
Notwithstanding the debunking of lies from a lack of evidence and repeated statements by Springfield officials, a September YouGov survey showed 52% of likely Trump voters thought the rumor was true or probably true versus 4% of likely Harris voters.
Russell Moore, the editor of Christianity Today, minced no words by saying: “The cruelty to and lying about Haitian immigrant families is satanic to the core. Children are terrified, and God is mocked. The time for repentance is now.”
The writers of The Twilight Zone saw fear as a powerful amplifier, able to magnify our weaknesses, biases, and tribalistic tendencies with remarkable efficiency. They understood how our cognitive and emotional faculties are hijacked when confronted by the fear of the unknown, loss, or of those different than us. In this state of heightened vulnerability, our judgment becomes clouded as we develop an “us versus them” mentality antithetical to scripture.
So when politicians intentionally amplify those fears, manipulating our inherent human weaknesses with fear, then Russell Moore’s judgment of “satanic” rings true as the Bible calls the devil a “liar and the father of lies.” And when such lies and evil become normative in society, we should take the advice of John Stott by not asking, “What is wrong with the world?’ for that diagnosis has already been given. Rather, we should ask, ‘What has happened to the salt and light?”
Here’s the deal and I like the way NT Wright frames it. We are to be “signposts planted in hostile soil that show a different way to be human,” as “Jesus’s resurrection was the beginning of God’s new project…to colonize earth with the life of heaven” through followers who bear His name and likeness.
That means taking our call to be Christ’s ambassadors seriously. It means being a countercultural force in society, willing to be dissident from the ruling powers and alert to their subversive influence on our beliefs, priorities, and practices. It means, like Moore and other Christian leaders in Springfield and throughout the nation, taking a stand against the lies and violence levied toward people made in the image of God.
Isn’t it time we say “enough” to those who would peddle fear? Isn’t it time to stop listening to those who would manipulate the weaknesses of our innate nature toward their ends? Being intentional about fleeing informational echo chambers that continually feed us a diet of fear and outrage? Isn’t it time we become people of the Word and people of faith who show the world a different way to be human?
Variations of the phrase “do not be afraid” appear over 300 times in various forms throughout the Bible. The book of Proverbs says, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” The apostle John wrote, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” The Bible is clear: fear and anxiety and those who peddle it have no place in the kingdom of God for those who dwell in the “secret place of the most High.”
Listen to the plea of Jeremy Hudson, senior pastor of Fellowship Church in Springfield, Ohio,
“To my fellow Christians, I issue this challenge: Let’s follow Jesus’ example. Respond with care and compassion, as he did for the multitudes, and let no opinion leave our lips that lacks the concern he showed, even for those who disagreed with him…If it wouldn’t come from the mouth of Jesus, it shouldn’t come from ours, either.”