Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
“There’s no place for faith in our public life”
Dr Bex Lewis Research Fellow in Social Media and Online Learning, CODEC, St John’s College, Durham
University; Director, Digital Fingerprint
17th April 2014: AJernoon Lecture: #SH2014 CreaMve Commons Non-‐Commercial Licence
Dr Bex Lewis Research Fellow in Social Media &
Online Learning CODEC, St John’s College, Durham
Director, Digital Fingerprint T: @drbexl F: /drbexl
W: drbexl.co.uk
Are they right?
A lot of people now argue that, because we’re living in a post-‐ChrisBan, secular culture, religion and faith shouldn’t be allowed a voice in discussions on public policy issues.
TwiEer Responses
• "The personal is poliMcal“ @johngcanning • Every aspect of public life is built and moMvated by "faith": faith in the state/human goodness/God/ourselves etc. @98rosjon
• Faith=EssenMal. I ws Cllr and took my faith with me in to chamber. But diff to integrate, I got a lot of #c*** from ppl at Church @MckRich
TwiEer Responses
• “@drbexl: “There’s no place for faith in our public life”#SH2014?” I don’t understand the hate that goes hand in hand with faith #auspol @Bazzamahaz
• Having faith tends to give us the impetus to work for jusMce and the good of others, plus a sense of compassion. All essenMal for those in public life. @MurielSowden
Twitter Responses
• can't separate my faith from my acMons, including those in public life. If people of faith are in public life faith is there too. @JennRiddlestone
• how can you separate faith from your public life? Is private faith true faith? @loulou_uberkirk
Twitter Responses
• Wrong. Stupid. Dumb. They're my thoughts :) @samhailes
• no clear dividing line between 'faith' and 'non-‐faith', all people have a bias and beliefs, not just 'religious' people @jameslee42
• we can't seek the welfare of the city if we refuse to engage with the policies that affect its inhabitants @garethdavies66
Meaning
We all have faith in something. The quesMon isn't whether people have faith, but what they put their faith in. The argument that some people have faith and others don't is a complete lie.
An atheist is someone of tremendous faith. To believe in no supernatural divine being whatsoever takes a lot of faith. James Prescoh, @JamesPrescoh77
The problem with the quesMon is that it presupposes that the 'secular' perspecMve found in the phrase 'public life' is without 'faith' in the first place. If faith is a combinaMon of worldview (or how we imagine the world to be), praxis (a combinaMon of rituals, liturgies, ethics and financial consideraMons), and life expectaBons (what, in light of worldview and praxis you expect life to be like, a kind of telos) then the 'secular' is as much a faith as orthodox ChrisManity. If this is the case, then it's not so much 'should faith be in the public square' but rather, 'which faith would we prefer to be in the public square?’ Joshua Penduck, Ordinand
“There’s no place for faith in our public life” sounds like a form of oppression to me. Firstly, what does one mean by "faith" in this context? Too many people use the word faith to me "things you believe, which I do not believe" or vice versa. I this context, I'd subsMtute "faith" for "belief system" (and add that atheism is a belief system). Now the statement reads "There's no place for belief systems in our public life." Now the statement sounds like, at best a form of denial, or worse wilful ignorance of the psychology. Faith is inherently involved in public life, the only quesMons are: what kind of faith (or faith in what) and is that faith declared or undeclared. Generally, when people have said to me "there's no place for faith in our public life" what they meant was "there's no place for your belief system in my world." -‐ and that is most definitely a belief (form of faith) that is trying to shape public life. Benjamin Ellis
Ben Whitnall, Bible Society That statement, unqualified, is a logical impossibility, I'd say. Like saying 'there's no place for water in a human body'. It's not true, it shouldn't be true and it's almost impossible to imagine a real, live situaMon in which it could be true. Being a lihle less obdurately literal, I think there's a context behind this quesMon that's been created by a linguisMc trick/synecdoche – something like saying 'there's no place for insisMng that overpriced, arMficial, carbonated, bohled, super-‐chilled water be the only liquid in the human body'. That is, people take a parBcular and very specific understanding/manifestaBon of the thing at hand and use it to stand in for the general term. In the case of 'faith', it will variously mean 'unquesBoning adherence to a major world religion' or 'supersMMous behaviour based on claims without any verifiable evidence' or 'brash confidence in the ability to change a situaMon' – or even more specific stuff, like 'telling people not to have sex before marriage' or 'serng economic policy on advice from bankers, not econometricians' or any one of a million other things. And then, without anyone saying so explicitly, *that* specific noMon becomes the basis for arguing for or against the inclusion of something as general as 'faith' in public life. In almost any other context, we know how crazy and dangerous it is to be so careless but the faith thing seems oddly vulnerable to this haziness. /rant
* Responses to the statement * Responses to the responses
Discuss
Faith & State?
Worldview Foucault maintained that rules of discourse are applied within historically defined periods and socially specific groups. These define and produce ideas of ‘truth’ and knowledge which govern, at any given Mme, ‘what is valid, sayable and possible’. Such rules are associated with insMtuMons, which, structured themselves by discourses, also play a key part in the regulaMon of populaMons through discourse. Lewis, PhD Thesis, 2004 (p27) See hhp://ww2poster.co.uk
!
The Archbishop of Canterbury complained that ‘what is primarily a moral problem with a medical aspect is being treated as if it were primarily a medical problem with a moral aspect’, and that ‘there is a great evil and a grave menace to be met’. The Archbishop of Canterbury: Most Rev. W. Temple D.D., Wellcome SA/PVD, Dr Maitland Radford (Medical Officer of Health, St Pancras), ‘The Central Council for Health EducaMon: Conference on Health EducaMon and the Venereal Diseases’, February 26 1943, p.10.
Trigg, Religion in Public Life, p4
‘Faith’ is oJen contrasted with ‘reason’ so that it appears that science deals with what is objecBve, and can command agreement, whilst religion is leJ with subjecBve reacMons. Individuals can search for a meaning in their personal lives, and that is seen as the province of religion. Truth, on the other hand, is publicly established, and that is said to be the realm of science.
Power of Secularism
The NaMonal Secular Society campaigns for the separaBon of religion and state and promotes secularism as the best means to create a society in which people of all religions or none can live together fairly and cohesively. The NSS sees secularism — the posiMon that the state should be separate from religion — as an essenMal element in promoMng equality between all ciMzens.hhp://www.secularism.org.uk/about.html
A.C. Grayling
We have the spectacle of the righteous wriMng lehers of complaint about televised nudity, while from the factory next door tons of armaments are exported to regions of the world gripped by poverty and civil war. hhp://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/22/religion.uk1
The Henley-‐on-‐Thames town councillor, 73, said the country had been 'beset by storms' since the passage of the new law on gay marriage because Mr Cameron had acted 'arrogantly against the Gospel'. In a leher to the Henley Standard he wrote: 'The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a ChrisMan naMon that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronaMon oath) will be beset by natural disasters such as storms, disease, pesMlence and war.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2541774/UKIP-councillor-David-Silvester-blames-UK-storms-gay-marriage-legalised.html#ixzz2z86TrVD6
Judge Rutherford (Bull vs Hall/Preddy, 2011)
“In our parliamentary democracy it is for parliament to frame laws which reflect these changes in artude or which give a lead to such changes,” he said. “Whatever may have been the posiMon in past centuries it is no longer the case that our laws must, or should, automaBcally reflect the Judeo-‐ChrisBan posiBon.”
State Religion
Communist Europe Prominent fight: for religious freedom against state atheism. Trigg, Religion in Public Life, p10
Trigg, p231 • … raMonality is something we all hold in common as humans. If public reasoning can have no relevance to religion, or equivalent systems of belief, we are restricMng the scope of what may help us to understand each other more, even if it does not always bring agreement. In fact, relaBvism, the opponent of such raBonality, always sinks into incoherence, by having in the end to assume something as true. When JusMce Stevens talks of the ‘evil’ of discriminaMng between systems of belief, where is he standing to make that judgement about evil? He clearly has a system of belief himself, encompassing toleraMon of all belief, and he considers it important enough to impose it in others using the full force of law.
Faith & PoliBcs?
hhp://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/03/24/gov-‐scoh-‐walker-‐refuses-‐to-‐take-‐down-‐religious-‐tweet/
DailyTelegraph 17/04/14
For the public good?
Miroslav Volf
"For ChrisMans, faith is a precious good, the most valuable personal and social resource. When it is leJ untapped, the common good suffers -‐ not just the parMcular interests of ChrisMans.” HT @partakers_dave
For me, "working in the public sphere" looks like Wilberforce fighBng slavery or the alliance of organisaBons who fought for debt relief, not publishing posiBon papers. Mark Howe
Rowan Williams – Faith in the Public Square, p5 • The sense that human beings are limited and dependent is not, for religious believers, something humiliaMng and disempowering; it is simply an acknowledgement of the way things are… This bears very obviously on our environmental challenges.
• A good many advocates and acMvists in this area have urged people of faith to arMculate more clearly the religious imperaMves around responsibility for the environment; and whatever the precise scienMfic predicMons around climate change, there should be no debate as to the rightness of a sober and realisBc scaling down of our consumpBon and polluBon.
•
Rowan Williams – Faith in the Public Square, p5
• But it is the same concern that ought to inform our response to economic crisis, where it is, once again, a mythology of control and guaranteed security, combined with the fantasy that unlimited material growth is possible, that has poisoned social and poliMcal life across a growing number of countries. No theologian has automaMc skill in economics, but there is an ethical perspecBve here, plainly rooted in theology, that obliges us to quesMon the nostrums of recent decades, and above all persistently to ask the awkward quesMon of what we want growth for, what model of well-‐being we actually assume in our economics.
“Theology … has a role in arBculaBng and displaying some of the ways in which the church contributes to the public good.” hhp://www.slideshare.net/drbexl/does-‐doctrine-‐maher-‐some-‐thoughts-‐from
As an atheist… I have a strong spiritual side…. For me, faith originates within me, influenced by the world that I am in, but it is first and foremost a personal venture. Of course, it affects how I live. Anything to do with meaning and the 'more' to life has to, I think. I don't subscribe to a religion but a lot of the Mme I enjoy talking to and living alongside those who do. Their beliefs can be inspiring and thought-‐provoking and challenging, and I value them as people and so I like that conversaBon being a public one -‐ and hope it is respechul. I think faith is less likely to become oppressive or dangerous if there is a very strong personal convicMon and it is not just treated as a social way of life with everything coming from outside of you Miranda Cooper-‐Beglin
Trigg, p234
Those who see some religions as dangerous should acknowledge that pushing religion into the dark recesses of private life merely shields it from public scruBny and criBcism.
EducaBon
The (New) Guide Promise
I promise that I will do my best: To be true to myself and develop my beliefs, To serve the Queen and my community, To help other people And to keep the (Brownie) Guide law. hhp://heathermaystanley.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/i-‐promise/
@hstanley_
* The State and formal religion: yes or no? * PoliMcians expressing beliefs: yes or no? * Teaching faith in educaMon: yes or no?
Discuss
A Personal Faith?
“The real bahles of faith today are being fought in factories, shops, offices and farms, in poliMcal parMes and government agencies, in countless homes, in press, radio and tv, in the relaMonship of the naMons. Very oJen it is said that the Church should go into those spheres but the fact is that the Church is already in those spheres in the persons of the laity.” World Council of Churches 1955 H/T @jaybutcher
“No life of faith can be lived privately. There must be overflow into the lives of others.” C.S. Lewis H/T @jaybutcher
Life’s a Peach and Not an Orange
Peter, always the first to speak and act in support of Jesus, and fearless of making public statements about his faith, now speaks just as impulsively in denial, simply to save his own skin. In this moment of danger he aEempts what is ulBmately impossible – to stay faithful only in private. Giving It Up, p193
Maggi Dawn
Image Source: Premier Christian Media
• If being a ChrisMan is loving God and loving others, even if I don't announce why I'm doing something, my faith is unavoidably in *public.* Heather Stanley
• I would suggest/argue that faith is already 'out there', that all things in the words of Rob Bell are spiritual so to suggest that there is no place for it is the wrong quesMon... its there anyway. As we listen to life and the world the quesBons of faith are all around us. Rob Wylie
• Agree with Rob. I don't believe in a separaBon between secular and spiritual so how can faith NOT be everywhere. Heather Stanley
I think that faith naturally overflows into public life, if it is deep, mature and confident. (Not over confident which can be harmful). And if faith is held at that level, it will pervade all our life, both public and private. Faith can't be kept in a box and troEed out to suit an occasion. It's something intrinsically linked to our 'being' that makes us who we are. Ernie Feasey
• Faith can be personal, but it was never meant to be private... Therefore it has to interact with public life, because faith is a very part of our being... That said, ChrisMans are not to force/compel others to hold their standard (what ever that is!)... That said, ChrisBans should be allowed in the public discussion, simply because they are humans, and free speech is part of human rights... Hope that makes some semblance of sense! Dave Roberts • But Faith in the Public Square is about whether faith has a place in public life in general -‐ in poliMcs, in government, in university research and so on. It isn't just about whether ChrisBans should be publicly ChrisBan -‐ that's obvious. It's the issue you have in the States about the separaMon of state and religion but the rather fuzzier mix we have in the UK. Pete Phillips • there are plenty of ChrisBans who keep their faith private and never talk about it in the public square... and it maybe obvious to you and I, but it isn't to them... Dave Roberts
@MurielSowden
If you have faith, then you live that faith 24/7. Not something that can be switched off in differing contexts.
• I think we need to look for and experience faith in every walk of life, whether it be personal, or public. If we don't show it, we may be denying it to someone else. For some people sadly we may be the only contact they have with someone of faith. So we need to share our experiences wherever and whenever we can without going over the top and coming off as some religious nuher. (In the nicest possible sense)
• Pennie Ley
#DIGIdisciple
• We all have something to contribute to the digital space: • Living 24/7 for God • Online/Offline, not Virtual/Real
• Are we the same person, living by the same values in both ‘spaces’?
Image Credit: The Worship Cloud
The Methodist Church social media policy: • Be credible. Be accurate, fair, thorough and transparent. • Be consistent. Encourage construcMve criMcism and deliberaMon. • Be cordial, honest and professional at all Mmes. Be responsive. When you gain insight, share it where appropriate. • Be integrated. Wherever possible, align online parMcipaMon with other communicaMons. • Be a good representaMve of the Methodist Church. Remember that you are an ambassador for Christ, the Church and your part of it. Disclose your posiMon as a member or officer of the Church, making it clear when speaking personally. Let GalaBans 5:22–26 guide your behaviour (fruits of the spirit). • Be respec�ul: respect confidenMality. Respect the views of others even where you disagree.
• hDp://www.methodist.org.uk/ministers-‐and-‐office-‐holders/technology-‐and-‐church/social-‐media-‐guidelines
* Can you have a ‘private’ faith? * Do you believe in something enough to die for it? * Any parMculariMes of the digital age?
Discuss
Dr Bex Lewis Research Fellow in Social Media &
Online Learning CODEC, St John’s College, Durham
Director, Digital Fingerprint T: @drbexl F: /drbexl
W: drbexl.co.uk
