• Taking Responsibility for Your Faith

How many people with a deep, abiding religious faith would admit that they have their faith because they have chosen to have that faith? While it may sound like a statement of the obvious, we like to think the faith we hold so dearly is above human choice or something that can be as casually selected as which cereal to eat for breakfast.

Ask someone why they have their faith (or just faith, as no one wants to believe their chosen faith is their own) and you might get answers such as "because I am a believer" or "because the bible tells me so". My sense is that the more fundamental and unquestionable one's religious beliefs are the less they are willing to take responsibility for their faith: God said it, I believe it. Their own choice in the matter never comes into play.

Is that a problem? I think so. The 9/11 terrorists would never have crashed the planes into the World Trade Center if they thought they had any choice in the matter; they were on a holy mission from God as interpreted by Osama bin Laden, a holy man much smarter than they. His articulation of God's commands compelled them to die for God's glory. Even the promise of the heavenly virgins was considered a gift from God, and not a tale they chose to believe. No choice, no responsibility.

That is an extreme case but we can see in our own society- and even in our holy scriptures - cases where by removing our choice in matters of faith we abdicate responsibility for our actions deferring to a higher authority, that, of course, is channeled through someone we believe has a closer, more authentic relationship with God.

But, what about when we recognize that we are responding to a calling from a higher power? We like to think that a calling that sends us on a noble course is a calling from God; a course that only could have come from God. Are we not choosing to believe that calling came from a higher power, noble, rational and even logical as that choice might be? Does admitting to ourselves that we were compelled more intellectually than spiritually in any way diminish the nobility or authenticity of our chosen life commitment?

I think not. If we hold as faith that God calls us through options presented to us and we choose ones that  honor and respect the words of God - whatever  we choose to believe those words are - then we have honored and respected God, not just simply followed God in the direction we choose to believe he is leading us.