The Rev. Anne Howard writes:

The phone doesn't even have to ring. Even the thought of the 3 a.m. phone call makes my pulse quicken.

We all know, even in our new day of ever-present cell phones and little BlackBeasts, that middle-of-the-night phone calls mean crisis, trouble, something that can't wait until morning.

Those calls are scary. And the name for the quickening of the pulse, the sinking sense of dread they give us is fear.

As the candidates --never mind the names-- use the ol' phone trick, (it used to be called the red phone schtick, now it's the 3 a.m. phone call) they play into our middle-of-the night dread. The name for that is fear-mongering.

In my lifetime of watching campaigns, nothing has been more consistent or effective than fear-mongering, as TV ads have rolled out mushroom clouds and Soviet tanks and crumbling Twin Towers, punctuated with a few sinister images of the foreigner moving into the neighborhood, the thief at the door.

And nothing is more enervating, more dis-empowering. Voters forget the wisdom they've gained from their daily lives -- the lessons they've learned in school rooms and church pews, at kitchen tables and back fences -- and they vote out of fear. Their own sense of empowerment evaporates. Fear replaces faith.

I want to hope that voters know how to think, and not just react when their fear buttons get pushed. I want to hope that people act out of conviction and courage and a sense that we can make a difference in our country. I want to hope that we won't see weeks and months of negative campaigning and fear-mongering.

I want to see, for once my life, faith make the difference, not fear.