Is this a "legend" or biblical truth?

I've been wondering this for some time, and it resurfaced when I was reading a friend's blog.

Do the traditional fear tactics in the "church" conflict with the bigger picture that God wants people to worship Him out of their own free will? Or was that just another non-biblical fairy tale that we learned while growing up in Sunday School?

This is an honest question. The reason I ask is because I have been basing my conclusions on Christianity based on the 50,000 foot view that God created humanity because he wanted them to be able to choose to worship him of their own free will. I was taught this somewhere, not sure if it was Sunday School, or just Christian folklore that I picked up along the way, or if it is actually bible.