The stories that keep us obedient

"James Baldwin grew up in Harlem in the 1930s, in a neighborhood where the church was often the only institution offering structure, identity and a sense of direction. His stepfather was a preacher... strict, volatile, convinced the world was dangerous and that discipline was the only defense against it. Baldwin was taught early that love and fear could sound the same from the pulpit, and that protection could arrive in a tone that felt indistinguishable from control."

"By adolescence, he was already writing, already watching, already noticing how authority behaves when it's anxious. He saw how parents and pastors tightened their grip (not because they were strong, but) when they were afraid... afraid of the world outside, afraid of losing their children to it, afraid of questions that didn't have answers prescriptively laid out. The punchline is that Baldwin left the church, but he never stopped studying its logic:"

James Baldwin grew up in 1930s Harlem where the church provided the only consistent structure, identity, and direction for many. His stepfather, a strict preacher, conveyed discipline as the sole defense against a dangerous world. Baldwin learned that love and fear could sound identical in authority's voice and that protection often arrived as controlling tones. He observed how anxious institutions clamp down when afraid, narrowing choices and policing acceptable questions. Baldwin left the church but continued to study how belief and fear are inherited and institutionalized, and how systems claim protection while shaping and diminishing individual autonomy.

Read at Medium