What Faith is NOT: Part 1

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="1552c963.jpg"> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="158" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#660000 HEIGHT= 71 WIDTH="146"><div> <A HREF="wf.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Waco Partnership for Psychological and S"><U>Waco Partnership for Psychological and Spiritual Care (WPPSC)</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="mailto:wmeades@gmail.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:wmeades@gmail.com"><U><IMG SRC="6799c150.png" border=0 width="156" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Practical Spirituality"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="intro.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Introduction"><U>Introduction</U></A></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dcffffff00.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">What Faith is NOT: Part 1</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id485.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What Faith is NOT: Part 2"><U>What Faith is NOT: Part 2</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id486.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Faith: Living As If"><U>Faith: Living "As If"</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id487.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Faith: What Gets You Up in the Morning?"><U>Faith: What Gets You Up in the Morning?</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id488.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Faith and Telling the Truth"><U>Faith and Telling the Truth</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Abby and the Bad Witch"><U>Abby and the Bad Witch</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mfis_htm.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mature, Functional and Immature Spiritua"><U>Mature, Functional and Immature Spirituality</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id502.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Faith: Concrete and Abstract Thinking"><U>Faith: Concrete and Abstract Thinking</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="rohrville.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Trip to Rohrville"><U>A Trip to Rohrville</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=170 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="589" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 143 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="78480800.png" border=0 width="128" height="128" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="78c9e700.png" border=0 width="414" height="112" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="146"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="146" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="432"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="432" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=310 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>What Faith is NOT: Part 1</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="702" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1448 WIDTH="696"><div> <B>What Faith is NOT: Part 1</B></div> <div> <B>The Misperception of Faith as Believing Information</B></div> <bR> <div>              Let's begin with a few questions:</div> <bR> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">What were you taught about faith?  </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">How has faith been defined for you? </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">What do people of faith do that sets them apart from people without faith?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">How have your ideas about faith changed over the years (or have they)?</div> <bR> <div>           Having grown up in a very traditional Baptist church, I was taught a slew of information that I was expected to believe was "true" in much the same way that my school teacher expected me to believe that 2 + 2 = 4 is true.  In other words, I was taught that belief where faith is concerned is the same thing as belief where verifiable facts are concerned. </div> <bR> <div>           Although an occasional preacher or teacher would say that having all these "facts" straight was not necessary to be "saved," the implication was that anyone who was serious about being a Christian would certainly believe these things to be true.  Furthermore, to question the truth of such statements was considered a bad thing.  Of course, I heard numerous sermons along the way about "Doubting Thomas," the disciple who doubted the resurrection of Jesus.  The sermons invariably tried to express that doubt is not a bad thing in itself, but said sermons also always came around to saying that good doubt will almost certainly lead back to certainty.</div> <bR> <div>           The trouble is, when faith is tied to insisting that particular religious information is "true," then faith cracks when that information is discovered to be less that reliable.</div> <bR> <div>           Consider the following lessons from our faith history. The earth revolves around the sun, and not vice versa!  Is anyone reading this troubled by this declaration?  After all, the Bible clearly states it is the sun that is moving (Ecclesiastes 1:5, Joshua 10:13), and if the Bible says it, we're supposed to believe it, and that's supposed to settle it. Right?  Copernicus was deeply troubled when, in the early 1500s, his own observations of the universe led him to question his religious training.  Like any good Christian of that day, Copernicus assumed the heavens rotated around the earth because the</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="231" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#660033 HEIGHT= 310 WIDTH="219"><div> On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: "O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."  So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.</div> <bR> <div> The book of Joshua, chapter 10</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> Bible said so.  When he realized that the observed movements of heavenly bodies could much more easily be explained if one allowed for the movement of the earth as well, then poor Copernicus knew he had a problem!  Not only did this information upset his personal religious apple cart, Copernicus had to contend with the religious powers who, like many sorts of powers, prefer stability over truth.  When Galileo later tried to run with these ideas, he backed down quickly when the religious establishment turned its wrath in his direction.     And yet, today, very few Christians have a problem with believing that the earth rotates around the sun.  Why the change?  Although scientific discoveries create much religious upheaval in the generations upon whom they are sprung, we seem to ultimately embrace the change, and finally even raise our eyebrows at those we look back on as being rather simple-minded.  Its hard to believe that it was only a couple of generations back that many Christians were insisting that persons of color were not as human as "whites," and were using the Bible to "prove" it. </div> <div>   </div> <div>           Like many of you who are reading this essay, my education led me to the conclusion that many of the so called religious facts I was taught were questionable, if not out and out insupportable.  Also like many of you, this led to a significant upheaval in my conceptions of faith.  Ultimately I decided to affirm that information does not have to be physically or literally true in order to be spiritually true, but this was not an easy conclusion to affirm. Somewhere along the way I decided that I would never tie my faith to any information that science could potentially disprove.  </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="227" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#660033 HEIGHT= 270 WIDTH="215"><div> I have always thought that faith was the opposite of belief.  If you're a believer, you don't have faith.  You think you know.  You have made your choice.  You are committed.  Faith, on the other hand, is having confidence in something or someone when you can't know for certain.  Uncertainty is the essence of faith.</div> <div>            Thomas Moore (Spirituality and Heatlh, Sep/Oct 2004, p. 11.)</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>           If it seems to you that your faith is not working, perhaps the following questions will help you sort things out:</div> <bR> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Was I taught that I must believe in certain religious facts in order to be spiritually healthy?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Have things happened to me that have raised questions about the truth of these religious facts?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">At this particular moment, what information do I believe is absolutely necessary to get right in order to be on a healthy spiritual journey? </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Where did I get the idea this information was important?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Can I trust that God is more interested in how my faith leads me to love than in how much information I'm willing to "believe?"</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>