Faith in the Divine is a personal endeavor, however for many of us we practice it collectively. We join religious traditions that tend to share our beliefs and practices. But we don't give up our individual experience and understanding of our connection to God. When we speak of multi-faith groups we often think of the collaboration between people of different large religious traditions. But every religion, denomination, and even singular house of worship is multi-faith. There is a high probability that the person sitting or standing next to you in prayer in your chosen house of worship connects with the Divine and hears the teachings of your scripture differently from you. That is okay. Diversity of thought, even within a self-selected group truly is a strength.
I am writing this in part to a response of a friend who is having a crisis of faith over the fact that her chosen tradition includes some who see President Trump as chosen by God. This has been baffling to many over the last 5 years. President Trump has never been the first person you think of when imagining a Christian leader, especially among evangelicals. His lifestyle is what they would rail against from pulpits for decades, he was pro-choice until he started to run for office, he has openly admitted to extra-martial affairs, including with women for money, he is divorced several times and couldn't come up with a single meaningful Bible verse when asked about it. In fact he tried to quote a verse when speaking to a room full of Christians and so botched the citation to it that it became a long running joke that still pops up regularly. So why you might ask? Well for some supporting him was, in part, because they didn't like Secretary Clinton as a candidate in 2016. The demonetization of the Clintons is on record for over 30 years. Donald Trump, formerly friends with the Clintons, was a perfect weapon for them against her and the history of her family. A brash bully who while not very articulate, was able to make attack lines stick and feed the need for some people to have someone articulate that which they felt in their heart. They cheered him not because he was a great man with a vision for the future, but because he wasn't a great man. Because he was a base man that sounded like an anonymous comment section of social media page. He was their hate avatar. So when they chose to back him strongly, they stuck with him, allowing any of his actions to be explained away when it contradicted who they were. They also got sucked into the cult of personality that is so common among people looking for a simple answer to the complex questions of the day. So Trump embodied both, a way to express their own hate and to offer a simple way of viewing the world thinking it would benefit them. This, of course, is not the totality of the Christian Trump supporters but this is a good number.
There are also those who like his relationship with the right wing of Israeli politics. For many Christians, Israel is the lynch pin for the second coming of Jesus. Many evangelicals are heavily invested in Israeli politics in favor of the more conservative positions in the Israel population. Bibi Netanyahu is happy to exploit this for his own political and national gain. Donald Trump has shown that for the most part he is willing to give Israel what is seeks. When he moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem he did what no President wanted to do because of the status of Jerusalem being something that was always thought to be a negotiation in the development of a two-state solution. Many Israeli and American Jews wanted this move. Jerusalem is the Capital of Israel. But international politics is often tricky but for Trump and some of his followers it should be simple and thus now the American Embassy is in a neighborhood in Jerusalem. Another step for those seeking the end of days.
The problem with the way our culture views Christianity in this country is always like a reflection in a carnival mirror. Many people see it not in their daily experiences but in the mass media that helps define Christianity on a grand scale. This is true of both left and right political worldviews but in many cases the main focus has been on the right. Be it the preachers on TV who call for their followers to send in money so that God will reward them or those who have used Christianity as a cloak to allow them to be more political operatives than ministers. People listen because they want to. When an admired preacher puts his arm around a man like Trump it gives them cover to support him. The most recent choice of candidates for President is a prime example. President-elect Biden has been a regular church goer for decades, a whose life experience gave him every reason to abandon faith, only had it strengthened over the years. Yet people who identify as Christian have openly made fun of him for attending mass. That is troubling but not uncommon. But you should never let that subset of people define Christianity, even Evangelicals. Too often that is why people ignore Evangelical voices in multi-faith conversations. So the stereotype not only persists but is give validation.
But the vast majority of people who are Christian are not like that, just a powerful subset that has become more politically active in the last 50 years. They should not define what it means to be Christian for anyone. If you are looking for examples of Christianity in the country, visit a food bank in the basement of a church, where ordinary people volunteer to make sure people are fed. See the work on the streets of Christian groups that help find shelter or at least warmth for the homeless. Look at organizations that driven by their faith act on behalf of the weakest, the abused and discarded in our society. There are many. Across all denominations, across all walks of life.
Sometimes people think a great deal about their faith and wonder about and envy those whose faith is so easy for them. They may even see them as ignoring reality for the sake of their faith. That is a very human trait. I think many times people do not want to wrestle with divinity. It is hard and makes you question a great deal of what you may have at your core. It is unsettling. But doubt has been with us forever. Simplistic world views are easier to cope with. I found the best illustration of this in a scene from one of my favorite science-fiction television series, Babylon 5. Created by J Michael Straczynski, the show told the story of humans and other races living on a diplomatic space station trying to prevent war between races while preparing to and eventually fighting a war against evil. Well written and I think did what no other TV series did well, explores the faith deeply, in all its grand and frustrating diversity. G'Kar, a leader of a race known a the Narn developed a following after writing a religious text, based on his experience and response to an earlier text. He didn't want this devotion but needed to respond to it, though his personality was not set to it even if his spirituality was a magnet. When ask what is truth and what is God this was his response:
If I take a lamp and shine it toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on the wall. The lamp is our search for truth, for understanding. Too often we assume that the light on the wall is god. But, the light is not the goal of the search. It is the result of the search. The more intense the search, the brighter the light on the wall. The brighter the light on the wall, the greater the sense of revelation upon seeing it.
Similarly, someone who does not search, who does not bring a lantern with him, sees nothing.
What we perceive as god is the by product of our search for god. It may simply be an appreciation of the light, pure and unblemished, not understanding that it comes from us. Sometimes we stand in front of the light and assume that we are the center of the universe. God looks astonishingly like we do. Or we turn to look at our shadow, and assume that all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the purpose, which is to use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all its beauty, and in all its flaws, and in so doing, better understand the world around us.
His followers were impressed but didn't understand. So they ask their question again, to which he said simply that truth is a river and God is the mouth of that river. All were happy.
There are people who recoil to any answer like the first one, it is a chore to think of faith that way. They prefer the river analogy. When it comes to most things, President Trump gives the river answer, and it comforts them. I suggest we always seek out the lamp answer. It may cause you discomfort, but religion faith should always comfort the afflicted and afflict in some way the comfortable. Thinking about one's faith is a holy act. It makes the light brighter.
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