Faith in God is the answer to the identity crisis

Part 5: We are loved by God, why should we think of ourselves as victims?

I am concerned by the hollow brittleness promoted by identity ideology – and this is in such contrast with the resilient, robust joy and peace promoted by the faithful worldview. There seems to be a terrible loss of the individual person in identity ideology, in favour of gaining value through the categories of person that you belong to. And, again, this value through categorisation only seems to operate in conflict against those who are understood to be denigrating your value – rather than the love of God which always affirms your value – and the value of others too. The negative aspect of this secular way of affirming identity is expressed in the way that the positive, life-enhancing qualities of who you are seem to be lost through the concept of victimisation. So, even those positives that could be gained through celebrating all races, through the appreciation of female and male, through valuing the actual positive values of the person rather than being blinded by their status in the world, all these positives are often submerged through the conflict of condemning those who are deemed to oppress you. Victimisation seems to be one of the key concepts of modern society, with many revelling in their degree of proclaimed victimhood – as though the affirmation of their self-worth comes from how many layers of oppression they are thought to be under – rather than being affirmed because all qualities of all individuals can be taken up, transformed and united by the love of God for all.

Faith in God is the answer to the identity crisis

Part 4: Faith allows us to love all, whereas secular ideology promotes conflict

So, through my faith in God, I have acquired the most precious identity there could be; I enjoy an invincible affirmation – and at the same time I am forbidden from and protected from any sense of superiority, for God loves everyone else in the same way he loves me. Moreover, he has laid on me an imperative obligation to love others the way he loves them. I am simultaneously, “no-one special” for God’s love for me is a gift, not bestowed because of my intrinsic good qualities, so I never have any reason to boast or look down on others, while at the same time I am as special a person as you could possibly be, for I am a precious child of God.

Compare this security with what often seems like a desperate floundering for self-justification among those in the secular world trying to find affirmation for their own identity. Perhaps most telling is the way so many seem unable to affirm their own identity except through denigrating the identity of others. Hence the immense conflict, anger, hostility we see in the competing claims of those using identity politics ideology to try and form a basis for their self-worth. Faith in God brings a unifying consensus to society, where there is true valuing of diversity because all are welcome. In contrast, identity politics often promotes a partisan bias in favour of your own particular point of view, while completely condemning anyone who disagrees with you.

Faith in God is the answer to the identity crisis

Part 3: We build securely on the foundation through our unity in Christ

In my late teens and early twenties, as I completed the initial stage of my adult spiritual formation, I had taken to heart that most revolutionary, radical sentence in the bible – Galatians. 3.28: “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free, for all are one in Christ Jesus”. From that moment, all obstacles or temptations raised by racism, sexism or any other status in life had been settled. We are all one. I don’t need any other argument. If I say this one sentence is sufficient to establish that we are all members of one family because we are all children of the one God, then that would be stupendously wonderful. Yet this sentence says even more than that. Conflict can exist even within families, but this one statement is establishing that whatever difference you might consider, whatever possible cause for hatred, competition, or contempt, it is overridden by the unifying love of Christ. Christ loves me. The proof is there in his death for me on the cross. But I cannot take this gift to heart without acknowledging that he also loves you, and you, and everybody, and that he died even for love of the one I might consider my worst enemy. The worth of Christ’s love is so ultimate that it cuts across any and all potential division. I cannot be against anyone for whom Christ is for.

Faith in God is the answer to the identity crisis

Part 2: Faith is the foundation stone

I want to put forward a better solution to the desire to be yourself in a multi-faceted world. Many will scornfully dismiss it as incredibly old-fashioned and limited, but I will argue that this is only because the modern world has lost touch with the deeper wisdom that faith pours into human life and society. I will go so far as to say it is an easy solution in that it is so very simple. The word “simple” is often derided as though it meant “simplistic”, but true simplicity has intense depth and clarity.

Let me share with you the simple truths that I had absorbed as a child before the age of eleven:-

• That God loves me
• That I am a child of God
• That God holds me in his hands and nothing can ever snatch me from them
• That God is with me
• That he will guide and sustain me through all trials and tribulations
• That even if I should succumb to suffering and death, then he will recompense me beyond measure in the life of heaven

These simple thoughts give me an unassailable sense of self-worth. I never have to trouble myself over my identity because my most fundamental identity is that I am a child of God, who loves me. I am affirmed beyond measure. It is the God who is the source of all life and the author of all goodness, truth and love who cares for me. What more do I need? What more is there?

(In 6 parts)

Faith in God is the answer to the identity crisis

Part 1: We have a problem

It strikes me that much of the anguish and conflict in modern society is down to a deep desire for affirmation. People – quite rightly – want to live an authentic life, to be the person that they truly are, to express themselves, not to be confined or restrained by the oppression or expectations of others, but to be respected by all. However, there seems to be a crisis of confidence, whereby many people are filled with doubts, or feel threatened, unsure of who they are, or what it would mean to truly be themselves. Rather than the deep desire for self-expression and fulfilment arising from a full heart and a clear mind, with a positive desire and determination to pour out into the world your individual creativity, there is instead a deeply negative preoccupation with antagonism against those who are perceived to be the ones limiting what would otherwise be a joyful self-giving. Instead, there is anger, hatred and condemnation, which very severely shuts out the positives in an endless round of mutual recrimination between irreconcilable camps.

Hidden worlds

Part 3: Take and eat

And this illustration can suffice: to those who don’t know, to talk of a banquet in bread and wine is to obscure the truth – to cast a veil over the reality. Yes, you understand that it is a reference to communion, but the reference means nothing, because the symbols mean nothing, because the reality means nothing. And it is wearying to think of the time and effort that it would take to find meaning in it – so let me be distracted by some new toy or pastime in the material world. But to those who understand, removing the cloth from the bread and wine is like removing the bandages from your eyes after cataract surgery, or like the lead weight being removed from your heart when the fears we dreaded turned out to be unfounded. Such a banquet is food for the soul and we shall never be hungry.

So, there we are: a hidden world, that everyone knows about, but many never visit it because they see no value in it. Yet for those who enter the world of faith, it is life in all its fullness.

(A reflection on faith in 3 parts)

Hidden worlds

Part 1: A deeper reality, hidden in plain sight

One of the many appeals of the Harry Potter books is the idea that, hidden within the ordinary everyday world, is a world of wizards and witches and magic. Without us realizing it, we are rubbing shoulders with those who can cast magic spells. They are in many ways indistinguishable from us, but, as well as inhabiting our world, they can also visit magical realms about which we know nothing. We regard ourselves as being normal, but to them we are just muggles. Not that there is anything disparaging about being a muggle, it’s just that we have no right of entry to the world that wizards and witches can freely go to.

A second example of a hidden world is not fictional, for it exists all around us. I had no idea that it existed till my daughter introduced me to it, and then I realised that I had been walking past it obliviously for the last 20 years. It is the world of geocaching. This is a hobby where people hide little objects for others to find, and the pleasure is simply finding them. There are clues to follow and signs to look out for. There is a good chance that you pass one of these hidden objects everyday without ever knowing that it’s there.

I use these two illustrations to try and open peoples’ eyes to the reality of the spiritual life of faith.

It may seem strange to make such a claim. Is not religion something that we all know about? Isn’t there a church on many a street corner? Yet for increasing numbers of people, the world of faith is a closed book to them. They inhabit a mental world completely enclosed within the physical, material universe, and they simply cannot conceive of the world of faith. They know the word “God”, but they dismissed the idea as nonsense by the time they left primary school. For them, God is just a made-up figure to help inadequate people who can’t cope by themselves. That’s if they aren’t more dismissive and see the whole of religion as superstitious nonsense and socially oppressive. Having hidden God away in the part of their mind that has that label on the door, no wonder they never visit it. The church on the corner is at the edge of their vision each day as they drive to work, but it never registers. Perhaps they never enter a church – until perhaps a relative’s funeral takes them there, where they feel socially awkward, like a fish out of water.