(In 4 parts)

40%.  Why 40% of the public have made a mistake

Part 1: I agree: there’s no point believing in a God who is not worthy of the definition

A recent census survey showed that 40% of British people are not religious. This is an answer that reveals a self-confident rejection of belief in God and a commitment to a secular worldview.

It would be good to understand the full range of thoughts that lie behind these 40% ticking the “no religion” box, but I expect that a large proportion are thinking that being asked to believe in God is like trying to force yourself to believe in someone you know isn’t there. In this respect, their choice is a noble one: they are refusing to hang onto the shreds of a faithful worldview for which there is not sufficient evidence. They are showing independence and a mature self-reliance, putting humanity first, and refusing to waste time in worshipping God when we should be focussing on our own needs – which are many! It is a bold decision that sweeps away for them the debris of a discredited point of view to open up the way for better things. Some may have tried to believe in God, but find they just can’t do it, and others may think that it would be lovely if God did exist, but our understanding of reality does not allow us to do so. Others will joyfully reject God and religion, regarding faith as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

I am going to argue that this 40% of people have made a mistake.

If you conceive of God as “a thing” – like a cat, or a tree, or a pencil or a human person – and you think that being faithful requires you to believe that there is a cat or a tree or a pencil or a human person in the room when it is clear to your senses that there is not, and when the objection is raised, “No, it’s an invisible cat” you find this an absurd idea and then, trying hard to imagine an invisible cat, you further declare that there is no evidence of even an invisible cat in the room – then it is entirely justifiable to conclude that there is no God, so why one earth would anyone believe in him?

However, if we take a more thoughtful look at the faithful point of view, we can declare that this is not a good way to understand God. As a faithful person myself, I agree with the secular point of view because I don’t think that that sort of a God can be found in the room either. However, I don’t want to consign the concept of God to “just a psychological issue” either – though we might be able to agree that it is a psychological issue – but only after we have demonstrated that the statement, “God is just a psychological effect in the human mind” is not the same as declaring, “God does not exist”.

Let’s begin with the “thinginess” in the conception of God “as a thing”. No-one has ever thought that God is an object with a substance like things have substance. And we can all agree that there can be a “spirit” in the room without having to see or touch it – perhaps there is a spirit of sadness in the room, or of anticipation – depending on the mood of the people in the room, or perhaps just our perception of how the inanimate objects in an empty room make us feel when we see a picture of it. Of course, this sort of spirit is entirely dependent on us – the humans who are experiencing it. And in this respect, I think that “God” – whatever God means – will have to be “a psychological issue” in that we have nowhere to experience things except in our minds. However, I believe that a proper understanding of God will reveal that we are talking about “something” much more substantial than “the spirit in the room” even though there is no object in a “thinginess” sort of way in the room.

Faith in God is the answer to the identity crisis

Part 6: Justice is our aim – but faith will get us there

Note: we are not abandoning the struggle for justice in society, but we are declaring a better way to achieve justice for all through the affirming values that come through faith in God, and we are declaring that this is a better route to achieve justice than through the conflict promoted by identity ideology, and through the terrible emptiness implied by identity ideology. In losing touch with the life of faith, secular society has deeply damaged its ability to find grounds for the basis of society. The inadequacies of secular ideology leave people without a satisfying basis for unity and consensus. Tragically for a society that claims to value diversity, it has destroyed the basis for a true valuing of diversity by promoting a hierarchy of identities approved by those in authority, while denigrating other diverse views deemed incompatible with the new supposed orthodoxy. And, in fact, intellectually, this rejection of otherwise valid diverse points of view is required because the basis for society promoted by identity ideology is so inadequate, resting, as it does, on the promotion of officially endorsed identities.

Faith in God is the answer to the identity crisis, for it truly allows all valid(*) diverse points of view to be embraced under the twin approach: you are truly loved – and so is everybody else.

(*) There is the need for this (*), as just about everyone accepts that there are some extreme points of view that should not be embraced. If, for example, someone holds the view: “Kill everyone I hate”, then this is not a diverse view to be embraced. However, even here the power of the faith approach holds true in the idea that God loves the sinner, even while condemning the sin.

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.