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Tuesday, 10 October 2006 14:56 |
 | | Marc Mullinax |
"The refusal to choose is a form of choice; disbelief is a form of belief."
ÇƒÏ Frank Barron
ï
MARS HILL ÇƒÓ I believe. Credo. We are asked to believe, commanded to believe, lured into belief. We are believers or else we donët belong. Without belief, we couldnët make it through a day. Faith in God, Nature, spouses, children, oneës body ÇƒÓ such beliefs help us get through the day more or less intact. For that, we should be thankful.
Christianity and Hinduism each have strong traditions of active, industrial-strength disbelief. Just as strongly as one may affirm positively oneës belief in something true, the believer has the responsibility to articulate what s/heës not saying, whatës not true. This back-and-forth action of saying yes and no ÇƒÓ yes to God, but no to Caesar, yes to love, but no to a sentiment that enables addictive love ÇƒÓ is a wonderful winnowing way to enrich faith. "I believe" and "I disbelieve" are the twin chambers of the heart of faith.
Active
disbelief in Christianity is called via negativa. Hinduism calls it
neti-neti. Both deny something is real in reference to something that
is real. Such bifocal vision in matters of faith and practice, I think,
keeps us honest. Saying "yes" doesnët mean much if one is not able to
back it up with a "no."
Every new
theology ÇƒÓ say, Lutherës against Catholicism ÇƒÓ begins with a holy
dissatisfaction with the status quo. Whose unity is being served? Whoës
being left out? Theology must offend someone. Belief itself might be a
form of bondage.
Active, faithful
disbelief is not faith-denial. Rather, it is a way to faithfully refuse
to allow certain things. It is an act of faith, said Tolstoy, not to
believe. He called the church an "impenetrable forest of stupidity" and
a "conscious deception that serves as a means for one part of the
people to govern the other."
Let me commend
we get back in touch with a key portion of our lives, our teenage
years. Disbelief is job one of teenagers. We often do not value these
almost-adults, often because of their unique abilities to show the rest
of us off as hypocrites, cartoon characters, or emperors who have no
clothes.
We invoke this
teenage spirit every time ÇƒÓ every time ÇƒÓ we march, protest, write
letters, risk prison, rail at the White House. This ... will ... not
... stand!! I speak of active incredulity regarding public policies
that disfavor the poorest and wars that kill more innocents than
terrorists. Incredulity is the first habit of active disbelievers.
Can we do it?
Most wonët. The worldës head laundry is pretty good at washing brains.
It takes lots of guts to speak a faithful no, to expose that which
should die from exposure.
I write though
as a would-be faithful disbeliever, a Protest-ant, one little ant doing
his protesting, his saying no. Are there other protest-ants out there?
Protest-poets? Protest-artists? Protest-sleuths?
I do not believe God ...
ï wills war, hunger or poverty
ï organizes the death of anyone, young or old.
ï hates our questions and detests our doubts.
ï wishes us to accept everything without debate.
ï likes the status quo that denies people liberty.
ï is happy with the way we treat Godës earth.
ï approves all we have done with religion.
ï speaks only through human language.
ï ever gives up on us in spite of all we do, and allow to be done.
I do not believe that...
ï church is a harbor where we can moor forever.
ï death and war and disease have the final say.
ï grace and justice can be forever thwarted.
God, I believe. Help my unbelief, but fire up and enable my disbelief. Amen.
ï
Dr. Marc S.
Mullinax, chairman of the philosophy and religion departments at Mars
Hill College, can be reached at mmullinax-at-mhc.edu.
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