Chaplain's Corner

“Did I hear him right?” I wondered. I quickly grabbed a pen and paper and wrote the words down, “It is better to faith it than fake it.” I listened and concluded I had heard him correctly, “It is better to faith it than fake it.” The speaker was a Brian Seim. I don’t know much about him. I must confess that since he said those words early in his presentation, I didn’t hear much else. “It is better to faith it than fake it.” The statement got my mind to pondering and I’m afraid I didn’t really hear much else he had to say.

“Faking it” I understand, it is what gets us into so much trouble isn’t it; “faking it” is what earns people the designation “hypocrite”. In its origins the word hypocrite meant actor, someone who played a part. Now in our culture actors and actresses get a lot of respect, they make a lot of money, their faces get plastered all over the TV and magazines and every one knows their names. We are also very aware that the parts they play in the films they star in don’t match the reality of their lives.

“Faking it” is OK if you are an actress or actor. It is what you do, and it isn’t considered hypocrisy because it is clear, it is obvious, there is no pretense that this is anything but the playing of a part. But when we “fake it” in real life, when we pretend to be something we are not, when our reality doesn’t match what we project to the people around us – that’s what gets us into trouble. Yet you and I “fake it” regularly.

We all know that “faking it” is dangerous and that if we get found out, we will have some explaining to do and some shame to deal with. But what does it mean to “faith it”? I had never heard these two words put together like this. But the phrase is one that sticks, “It is better to faith it than fake it.” So, what does it mean to “faith it”?

Well faith involves trusting someone or something to do something. Faith is a very relational word. Faith can not exist in a vacuum, it is a transactional word. If I were to “faith it” what would I be doing? I would be trusting, placing confidence in someone or something, but what? That is a big question, having faith or believing or trusting or being confident requires an object. What is it that I am placing faith in, what is it that I am trusting, what is it that I am believing, and what is it that I am being confident about?

Since 1978 when I began working in spiritual care, this has emerged to be perhaps the most important of spiritual questions. The world has changed since the 1970’s; a philosophical evolution has taken Western culture from modernism to post-modernism. Books have been written about this shift and I am not so foolish as to think I understand all of the nuances of the shift, but one of the apparent changes has to do with the object of our faith, the object of our trust or confidence.

Orthodox faith groups have never embraces the faith object of modernism, they have remained committed to the respective objects of their faith. However society in general did embrace the philosophical posture of modernism which touted science as the source of absolute truth. It led many to a belief that through science, we could address and resolve any problem faced by humankind. It gave rise to powerful movements to raise funds so that research scientists could discover the “cure” for a multitude of diseases and disorders. Along with this faith in science came a faith in education. At times education was suggested to be our “savior”. If we could just get people educated, informed, then many of the problems we face would dissolve into the enlightenment that would follow. Yet billions of dollars have been raised and invested in research with some wonderful results, but not the cures that modernism promised. And billions have been spent to educate and inform people on a myriad of subjects, yet as the decades of the last quarter of the century passed into the new millennium. But we have become rather cynical about the reports of the newest research for so much of the research has produced contradictory reports, leaving us wondering if science itself hasn’t been hijacked by some sinister political agenda bent on subversively controlling our lives.

Our faith in science and education (the objects of faith for the modernist) have disappointed and faded into the relativism of postmodern philosophy; a relativism that espouses that nothing is absolutely true and nothing is absolutely false; that everything is true and at the same time everything may be false, and the determiner of truth lies in the subjective soul of each individual, instead of some object outside the individual. This relativism has especially taken root in the realm of spirituality and religion. Sharp and powerful criticism is leveled against any spirituality or religion that claims to have “the way to God”. The gurus of the new spirituality are teaching that my truth may not be your truth and that none of us have the right to claim that our truth is “the truth”. Your truth may be your way to God, but my truth and every other person’s truth although different and even contradictory is their way to God.

Postmodern thinking then pushes orthodox Christianity, orthodox Judaism, orthodox Islam, on their heals. For the very essence of orthodoxy in these spiritualities has to do with their stated claim of exclusivity. The claim to exclusivity in these and other religious and spiritual traditions lies in an objective authority recognized by the group. For the Judaism it is the Torah and Talmud, for Christianity it is the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, for Islam it is the Koran. Of course within each of these spiritual traditions there are those who have are denying or radically reinterpreting the meaning of their authoritative writings, but those who have taken such a posture would not be comfortable with the label “orthodox”.

You have probably heard the words Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” (KJV) or as the NIV puts it “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.” If the Christian Scriptures are God word, actually God’s Word (I believe they are), then it is certainly apparent that people have cast off all restraints, for there are very few that believe that God’s Word has any authority over their lives. When no external authority is recognized and respected, there is no restraint, people do their own thing, believe whatever makes them comfortable with the way of life they have chosen and society begins to come apart at the seams.

To many I am one of the few fools remaining who continues to live in the darkness of orthodox Christina oppression. I believe the Bible is authoritative, I believe it is inspired by God, that it is inerrant and that it is to be believed literally in its historical and grammatical context. Such belief requires that I “faith it” on many occasions, because the truthfulness of the Bible is many times not apparent in the rough and tumble world in which I live. But then, this authority calls those who embrace it “to live by faith, not by sight” doesn’t it.

I am deeply fearful for those who have traded this objective, proven authority for the authority of their own whims and desires. I believe we are seeing the first fruits of the harvest of such a belief system. It shows up in the utter disrespect that is quickly engulfing our culture: disrespect for all authority, the police, teachers, government officials, and parents. It shows up in the standardless way we live, where everyone does pretty much what seems right in their own eyes. As an orthodox Christian, I am deeply committed to “faithing it”: believing that God is my maker and authority and ordering my life by God’s Word. I don’t want to throw off His restraints, for a world without His restraints is nothing short of narcissistic chaos.