Under
what circumstances do you find it most difficult to talk about your
faith? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page
1353).
I
would like to distinguish between talk about what might be called the
dogma of my faith and the ethical ramifications of my faith. It
seems to me that it is inappropriate to talk about the dogma of my
faith to a captive audience—say among coworkers at a place of
employment. If they were to show an interests in both of us sharing
our faith privately together that is one thing, but to hold forth
about religious dogma under captive conditions seems to me to be
unethical and un-American as we believe in freedom of religion—I
should not be subject to religious indoctrination against my will.
What do I mean by this? Well, for example, I should not be asking a
co-worker if Jesus is their Savior. Now this is quite unlike the
ethical ramifications of my faith. For example, as my blog yesterday
quoted Daniel telling Nebuchadnezzar “Renounce your sins by doing
what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed.”
That is, Daniel is discussing public policy as it relates to the
poor and those of low social status. In my opinion, this is not a
matter of the religious indoctrination of Nebuchadnezzar, but Daniel following through on the ethical ramifications of his faith. Therefore, at work I would
feel constrained and withhold from saying that Jesus teaches that we are to love
one another and be servants to one another. However I would feel
totally justified in arguing against a company policy I think
conflicts with those principles—say, if I perceive that our
customer service policy has elements of arrogance in it. Unlike Daniel, however, I would probably not say that it is a sin, but rather couch it in terms of being action contrary to our greater and long-term interests and stated mission.
It
seems to me that this distinction is necessary; for freedom of
religion is meaningless if we cannot live our faith as opposed to
proselytizing it. That is why the abortion issue is so problematic
for Americans. To be honest, I don’t know if the Bible
specifically condemns abortion, but certainly the thrust of Scripture
does not celebrate it as a form of birth control for the thrust of
Scripture elevates the worth of individuals. Abortion as birth
control allies with the saying “You make um, we scrape um.” It
is essentially callously destroying an individual with low social status and
power. It is difficult to meld this attitude with the thrust of my
religion. Therefore, on this issue I disagree with my political
party. It is not a matter of religious dogma and some petty
quotation of some Scripture verse or other, but a matter of the ethical
implications of the broad sweep and meaning of my religion.
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