Personal Fears and Public Faith

Last week, New York state approved of same sex marriage. Regardless of what you think about that, it is astounding how the general public perception has changed in just 20 years.

In 1991, only about 18% of people in the US approved of same sex marriage. Polls show that 50% approve of it now. The work of a relatively few people who refused to be intimidated into silence by majority opinion has radically changed what two decades ago was an entrenched cultural assumption.

I thought about that as I read a recent study titled “Integrating Religious and Professional Identities: Christian Faculty at Public Institutions of Higher Education" which you can read here.

The study shows how these faculty members are working out how to integrate their faith with their public life which is one of the major values for Grad/Faculty Ministry.

It also gets back to some of the themes in Lesslie Newbigin’s book Truth to Tell, with which I started this blog.

Newbigin rejects what he calls the “false objectivity” sought by the Enlightenment, and he also rejects the “empty subjectivism” that reacts against it “where there are no criteria but anything goes” (p. 56). He calls that an "agnostic pluralism" in that no one claims that anything is true.

Instead, he calls for a “committed pluralism” which follows the lead of how science is done.

A scientist may commit to a theory or view she has come to believe is really true, yet she must present her findings to public scrutiny and testing against other viable theories in order to gain broad acceptance of her work. In the same way, Christians also must “bring our faith into the public arena, publish it, and put it at risk in the encounter with other faiths and ideologies in open debate and argument....” (p.60).

This approach acknowledges the personal, provisional nature of our understanding of what we believe is the truth “out there” and commits to engaging with it in the pluralistic environment of our culture. In doing so, we are open to the critique of others who may help us see the “excess baggage” we are carrying along with our faith, and we also open the way for others for whom religious ideas in general and Christian faith in particular have not had an influence to begin to see reality in a different way.

Unlike those comfortable with an "agnostic pluralism", Newbigin writes that Christians do have a truth to be shared and "we have to proclaim it as part of the continuing conversation which shapes public (life). It must be heard in the conversation of economists, psychiatrists, educators, scientists, and politicians…” (p. 64) in that our faith shapes and influences how we understand and how we do our work and life.

In short, our personal commitment to our faith has a public dimension. The basic Christian conviction is not “Jesus is my Lord” but “Jesus is Lord of all.” The reign of God involves all of life. As the faculty study shows, how we actually engage with this public dimension will differ in light of our personality, circumstances and opportunities, but all the faculty agreed that their faith is not just a private, internal matter.

Back to the same sex movement... At present, the faculty study shows that many academics feel silenced and fearful that their faith will be perceived negatively by peers and thus block their career progress. Perhaps another lesson should be drawn going back to the Civil Rights movement... are we participating in our own oppression by keeping silent??? Even though we are experiencing a major cultural shift regarding something as critical as marriage, do we presume that academic culture regarding its perception of religious faith cannot change???

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I’ll not be posting for a few days as we have two granddaughters visiting with us for a week starting tomorrow!