Even in very serene, traditional sorts of Christian Churches, it's perfectly normal to hear Clergy reminding people that "Our God is an angry God", or something similar. They will talk of his vengeful, jealous, wrathful nature, and his status as "a God of retribution".
The thing to remember about this is that a lot of Christianity is deeply rooted in fear. One of the main ideas about believing in God and living a Godly life is that by doing so, one will enter into heaven at the point of death. Hell is depicted as a pretty nasty place - somewhere that we should be very fearful about ending up. The fear of hell and the fear of a God who is vengeful enough to send us there is designed to keep our behavior in check. And I do think that this has been a successful tactic, to an extent.
Another common but slightly conflicting perception of God is of the benevolent God who always forgives. This understanding is generally much preferred to that of the angry God, but whilst forgiveness is certainly a virtue, it is not something that is universally approved of at all times. An example would be a relationship where one partner is constantly cheating and the other partner repeatedly forgives them (or at the very least, excuses their behavior). In those kinds of situations the cheating behavior tends to continue over many years or even a lifetime, because it becomes clear that with no 'punishment' the dishonest partner can always have their cake and eat it, as it were.
There are stories in the Bible that I never liked and found extremely hard to reconcile with my understanding of God, when I was Christian. There are quite a number of massacres that God supposedly carried out in the name of divine retribution Examples would be the flood in Genesis (Noah's Ark story), the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (also in Genesis), the ten plagues in the book of Exodus (particularly the Angel of Death), and the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea (again, Exodus). Whether it is really necessary to promote the idea of God as a mass-murderer, I don't know. But there is something to be said for encouraging the idea that there are consequences to one's actions. That forgiveness is not an automatic right or an invitation to behave poorly, but something that must be properly earned.
Beyond religion, fear is used (to varying degrees) in almost all walks of life. Sadly, many workplaces are built on a culture of fear. Often I think it is horribly over-used, and it can cause great psychological damage. However, it can be very effective because it kickstarts our primal survival instinct, and in certain circumstances, when weighed up against other less aggressive tactics, it can appear a very attractive (and not necessarily bad) option. Even here at TOTJO, we combat repeated poor conduct with warnings, usually of temporary or permanent bans from the forum. It's a last resort but often it works when everything else has failed...
In a more religious sense I'm not sure that we TOTJO Jedi really use fear as a motivator, but, whilst I personally wouldn't wish us to, the usefulness of fear is certainly open for debate...
For me, to fully embrace a religion one must feel very safe within it. Not necessarily in that there shouldn't be hurdles to overcome, but that one should feel that it is relatively safe environment in which to tackle the hurdles. Fear, in it's very nature, makes people feel the total opposite of safe. The fight or flight response that it creates essentially shuts down our capacity to think calmly or rationally and whilst this is manageable for a few moments at a time on an occasional basis, we can't possibly function in a truly religious or spiritual sense (or any other sense, come to that) if in this state on a regular or permanent basis.
I think I'm definitely rambling now so I'm going to stop at this point... :pinch:
B.Div | OCP
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