The privatisation of religious belief

The trend of the contemporary world is towards individualism. By many commentators this is seen as a great threat to the church.

The word privatisation has two connotations, both of which are relevant in this context.

1. It implies the disengagement of faith from the public arena. You may have your own personal beliefs but these are never to be expressed, or used as guiding principles for others in the workplace or community or often even in our own home. This disengagement is partially voluntary (a retreat) and partially coercive (an exclusion).

Voluntary retreat. 71.7% of people stated they were Christians in the 2001 census for England and Wales, but the number who go to church is a small fraction of that. Yet no one is stopping them!

Coercive exclusion. There is a strong sense in society that you must not impose your personal beliefs on other people.

2. It implies also the self-construction, the customisation of faith to suit the individual. You make your 'god' what you want it to be. You can buy an idol ready-made. Or instead you take home the clay and fashion it into the shape you want your 'god', your 'belief' to be. You have your personal faith. Faith used to be seen in terms of accepting an objective set of teachings/revelation from a higher authority. Now the individual stands in authority over what to believe - and sees no problem with that.

Obviously these two are related. If you have fashioned your own personal beliefs it is unreasonable to expect other people to be subject to them. The privatisation of religious belief is very pertinent to our day, and here we will try to investigate its causes, consequences and steps towards its cure.

CAUSES

We are reminded of the days of the Judges in the Old Testament, when, because there was no king, every man did as he saw fit in his own eyes (Judges 21.25).

No king meant that there was no recognised authority. How do we then interpret the attitude of our current society? Theologically and ultimately the root cause of this situation is not the absence of God, but the fallenness of human nature, which instinctively is at enmity with God. The cause of the privatised religion is the rejection of God's authority as King.

The first expression of wickedness according to Romans 1 is that sinners (all of us) 'suppress the truth'. The truth which people suppress first is the truth of the existence and being of God, who alone can make sense of life. When God is denied, access to absolutes, like truth, becomes impossible. Everything be-comes relativised, a matter of opinion and hence the privatisation of religious belief follows.

In the 2001 census 400,000 people stated their religion as 'Jedi' after the Star Wars films. This was more than Jews or Buddhists or Sikhs. In Brighton it seems, 2.6% of population are Jedi! Why not, if it's all just a matter of opinion!

Though the fallenness of human nature stands at the root of privatisation of religious belief, there are factors which people use to justify it, and to give themselves permission for taking this stance.

World permission providers

People give many reasons for no longer believing in religious authority. These triggers do not necessarily form a coherent alternative. Different triggers may function as permission providers for different people.

1. Science. There is not only a public perception that 'science' has disproved (say) the Bible, but also that science has brought much good to mankind. Popular science is seen as synonymous with atheistic evolution. So, for example, BBC TV's Walking with Cavemen provided a totally different view of human origins from the Bible. If there is truth at all, then, for many people, it is pop-science truth and nothing to do with religion.

2. Suffering. The age-old problem of suffering in the world provides many other people with 'permission' to reject God. Morally they feel superior to a God who allows suffering.

3. Postmodernism. The Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries presented the rejection of God and the hope of a unified world view (truth), accessible to reason. But the postmodern age has rejected the Enlightenment faith in reason and 'progress'. WWI was the grave of Enlightenment. It is argued that human beings are emotional as well as intellectual. And that life experiences condition our perception of reality. The black poor see the world very differently from the affluent white. Similarly, men and women, Buddhist and Muslim, read life very differently. Therefore it is argued that there can be no agreement as to what 'progress' means. Post-modernism goes on to claim that all truth claims are power-plays to dominate others. Such thinking inevitably includes a rejection of the whole idea of 'public arena' and so inevitably triggers 'privatisation'.

Now although such reasons often contradict one another and the Christian has good answers to all of them and more, for many other reasons our voice is not given air-time, and not even countenanced by the majority of people.

Church permission providers

Many permission providers come from the failure of the church itself.

1. The lack of agreed authority within the professing church. Does the church submit to Scripture? Does it bow to the papacy or tradition or the latest contemporary prophet? The new Archbishop seems to posit some sort of combination of 'Scripture' plus 'wherever we find love the Spirit of God is there and we must listen to whatever those people are saying'. Ordinary people conclude: 'They cannot agree among themselves, so why should we take any notice?'

2. The corruption within the professing church. The evangelical church is far from innocent here. But the current obvious example is the scandal within Catholicism over paedophile priests and the evident cover up that has ensued. 'Why should we listen to a church without integrity?' it is said.

3. Religious conflict. People tend to lump all religion together. Some historians see the 16th-century wars between Catholics and Protestants as providing impetus to the Enlightenment rejection of religion. The troubles between Israel and Palestinian are religious in origin. Current persecution of Christians by Muslims is often portrayed by the media as being caused by six of one and half-a-dozen of the other. Ongoing problems in Northern Ireland add to the perception that the church is far from bringing a blessing on the world. At a lesser level they see churches prepared to divide over and deride such personal preferences as styles of worship. Religion only brings division and conflict is the conclusion. So people would rather fill the spiritual vacuum in their lives in their own way.

4. The foolishness of religious leaders. In 1980 nearly 11% of population went to church. By 2000 it was down to 7.5%. Confronted with dramatically falling church attendance, many church leaders have been so keen to be 'relevant', and in the forefront of popular opinion on all kinds of political and moral issues, that people with any sense see that they are simply aping the world. They conclude that these leaders have nothing different to say. 'Their religion means nothing.' Christianity means whatever they want it to mean. Privatisation!

Supporting factors

On top of the reasons which encourage people away from public religion towards a privatised view, there are certain structures and ideas which sustain and support them in it. Let me mention a few.

1. TV has an in-built secularism. It is a dominating visual medium which inevitably carries the covert message 'what is seen is what is real' with the implication that 'what you can't see is not real'. This is the voice in virtually every home of the land.

2. The society in which we live is very mobile. People do not stay very long in places. Commuting to work brings a dislocation between work and home. Community and public involvement are more difficult. This tends to support a privatised view of life.

3. The culture of self-fulfilment appeals to the individual. The secular hope of consumerism and pop-psychology works more in terms of personal fulfilment, not a vision for society. This again supports a privatised view of all of life.

The ultimate position

Whether thought through or not, based on this personal freedom/self-fulfilment ethos, people move towards what some commentators have called 'The culture of disbelief'.

According to postmodernism (as we have seen), any truth claim is not only not true, it is actually a power-play. It is someone trying to use 'the truth' to manipulate you. The argument is that if you believe 'their truth' you are being robbed of your freedom. They are seeking to control you and to use you for their own ends - to boost their membership or whatever.

So, to defend against this, all 'truth claims' must be debunked. This will insulate you from falling into 'belief' - that is, into the clutches of their power-play. Disbelief, therefore, is the only safe choice. It alone preserves your autonomy. It alone guarantees your freedom to believe and act as you want to. Belief is the oppressor.

Note where that leads. It leads to the idea that cultural virtue is to guard against belief. This is a very big change from the virtues of the old Enlightenment world. There it was seen as virtuous to 'keep an open mind.' But the culture of disbelief champions a closed mind. So the postmodern culture tends to see Christianity and religion as dangerous. At best it is naive, and at worst it is a power-play to take away people's freedom. This is why Christian witness seems so extraordinarily hard these days.

Although ordinary folk may not have thought it through like this, nevertheless that is where they tend to stand. They have come to a privatised outlook. 'It's my life, and I want to listen only to myself.'

CONSEQUENCES

Privatisation of belief has numerous implications.

Society

First, we look briefly at consequences for the world or public life generally.

If this 'culture of disbelief' (the ultimate position of privatisation) takes root I am not sure that society can hold together. It is not just interest in church that has fallen. We are already witnessing falling interest in political parties. Is it to do with suspicion of all ideologies? All ideologies - not just religious ideas - are seen as straight-jackets, and restrictive. If individuals adopt such an outlook how can they be interested in the democratic process?

Romans 1 tells us that where there is suppression of truth (postmodernism incarnate?) society must degenerate. Without a vision the people perish, says Proverbs. Why did Jeroboam set up his calf idols for his kingdom in 1 Kings 12? It was because, after the division of the kingdom and their loss of access to the worship of God at Jerusalem, he saw the necessity of a unified ideology for his breakaway state. He saw that without a shared set of values his country would not last long. Surely this is a telling thought for the future of the West. Postmodernism, with no belief in progress or public values is a culture without hope. It has no bright future. It is committed to not being committed to any belief system. The consequences seem to me that such a society cannot survive.

Church

Second, let us look at the consequences of the privatisation of belief for the church.

It seems that it is not just the world which has privatised religious belief. In many ways the church has already adopted this privatised lifestyle.

1. A tacit acceptance of the secular/sacred divide. This is shown in the acceptance (conscious or unconscious) that God is less interested in certain parts of our lives than others. He is interested in private prayer, but not in business life, etc.

Mark Greene of the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity, writes: 'It is because of this sacred/secular divide that over 50% of Christians have never heard a sermon on work - something that they will spend more than 65% of their waking lives doing for about 40 years. Quotations like this abound: 'I teach in Sunday School 45 minutes a week and they put me at the front and the whole church prays for me. I teach in school 40 hours a week and no one ever prays for me.' That's the sacred/ secular divide: praying for one part of a Christian's life but not another.' By contrast the Bible sees all life as worship (Romans 12.1,2), and all life as a point of witness.

2. The dislocation of belief from behaviour. Once the secular/sacred divide takes root, a gap between belief and behaviour begins to open up.

A recent Gallup Poll investigating Christians in the US states the following: 'The poll found that 76% of Christians agreed completely with the notion that all people, regardless of race, creed or wealth, are loved by God, and, therefore, Christians should love all. But just 44% said the notion "God calls me to be involved in the lives of the poor and suffering" applied to them.' There is the gap between belief and behaviour.

And it is at this point that we must question whether or not the evangelical church has rightly handled the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Justification by faith alone in Christ alone is certainly what the Bible teaches. But does it teach that saving faith is a privatised faith which finds no public expression? The answer is a resounding 'No!' Our understanding of faith has been too much shaped by the individualistic culture in which we live. The New Testament states that true faith is evidenced by love (Galatians 5.6, James 2.17,20; Matthew 7.24-27). Love is not self-centred, it is other-centred.

3. The invalidation of the church's witness. The Christian life of loving action and Christ-like character is never meant to replace the verbal communication of the gospel to others and the testimony of 'what the Lord has done for me'. But the Christian life of loving activity is meant to validate that witness. We can only expect to be believed when we come to tell people of God's love if we show them love in concrete ways. If our lives are basically self-absorbed, in retreat from public sphere and community involvement, how can we show love? How is the gospel to be validated?

Our lives are not just meant to validate witness, but actually to provoke questions. That is the general slant of New Testament evangelism for those of us who are not set aside/gifted particularly for the work of an evangelist (Colossians 4.6; 1 Peter 3.15).

But we often collaborate with the idea that faith is private and personal only, and hide in our shells, with faith finding little or no public expression. When that happens we are giving the impression that the Word of the Lord changes very little, that the new birth is something very minor. This invalidates the gospel.

4. The rise of heresy within the church. This is of great seriousness. Once there is an acceptance of the privatisation of religious belief within the church, then there is an open door to the departure from the Bible and public Confessions of Faith.

There is in Scripture a right idea of 'unity in diversity'. That is used in the context of people having different spiritual gifts within the church. But these days that is being misused to legitimise the acceptance of error within the body of Christ. You can choose from a range of 'theologies' or simply make up your own.

Once you accept the privatisation of religious belief, then you are saying that ultimately there is no such thing as heresy. This gives opportunity for the church to be filled with all the confusion and corruption which is so abhorrent to a holy God.

CURE

There can be no cure for this dreadful state of affairs without thorough repentance, reformation and revival.

1 Repentance

* There must be an honest acknowledgement on the part of ordinary Christians that we have co-operated too readily with the materialistic, self-pleasing ways of our society. Worldliness in the church is to do with sexual laxity, and being more concerned to be entertained than to serve. But it is also to do with living in the past to the neglect of the present. It is to do with pursuing careers to the detriment of the work of the church and the gospel. It is to do with the stifling of the Spirit's love through a failure to be involved in any meaningful way with your community.

* So many Christians choose where they will live with no reference to the work of God. They attend a church miles away. And that is just perfect for the privatisation of your faith. If you did get involved with the people where you live - you would have to take them miles to church. If you do get involved with evangelism around the church - the people there do not know you from Adam!

2 Reformation

* There must be a re-establishment of the essential truths of the gospel in the church. There must be a re-establishment of 'the common faith'. The Bible needs to be truly central again. There must be a united public declaration of saving truth. There must be a rejection of all liberalism which subtracts from the saving truth of Christ (1 Corinthians, etc.). But equally there must be a rejection of all versions of modern Judaising which adds to the gospel and would treat non-essentials as if they are essential to the gospel (Galatians). The making of non-essentials into essentials is the great sin among both many Reformed and many charismatic churches. Both the subtraction from and the addition to the gospel makes the articulation of the truth ever more difficult in a world that does not believe in public religious truth.

* There also needs to be Reformation in the way we teach in the church. Pastors and teachers are meant to equip the saints for works of service. 2 Timothy 3.16,17 talks of Scripture being used for 'training in righteousness'. I am not sure our folk are properly 'trained' to live as Christians in the world of the 21st century in a way that really provokes others to ask about Jesus. I think many churches are happy enough if their people just turn up on Sundays and mid-week and steer clear of any public scandal. That really will not do.

* Churches without a theology of Common Grace. This leads to a lopsided view of the world by the evangelical church. Holiness is seen only in terms of withdrawal from the world and withdrawal into Christian ghetto. But the world is two things. It is the devil's domain - we do need to be careful. But it is still God's world - there is much to be thankful for and much to enjoy which is a part of humanity (1 Timothy 4.1-5). But without a theology of Common Grace we become a sect/ghetto. Jesus did frequent places where sinners met. The early church members did get invited along to meals with pagan friends and the apostle Paul was happy to give some instruction about how to handle such occasions (1 Corinthians 10.27-30). Never go to a pub, or a football match, and no matter how good the local education is, only send your children to Christian schools. Is that kind of attitude right?

3 Revival

We have to acknowledge that generally the church faces problems which 'are so big and complicated' we cannot handle them. Unless God comes in a mighty way and gives us new eyes to see things differently and new hearts of love for a lost world, authentic biblical Christianity in our land will continue to struggle. How, therefore, we need to pray!

And remember, every genuine revival of God has had a public face of love and care. The idea that caring for the needy in society is 'liberal' and to be derided as 'a social gospel' is wrong-headed. The idea that true evangelicals only preach and do not dirty their hands by getting involved with the needy in public society, is an utter lie which is used to prop up a heartless, privatised and inauthentic evangelicalism of which we should be ashamed. How can we profess to be true followers of him who had compassion on the crowds and preached the truth to them, but did not send them away until they were fed, if all we are prepared to do for the lost of today is to stuff a tract through their door and run away?

The need is urgent. A mighty cure is needed.

But looking at Scripture we are not to be down-hearted, but realise that God is able!

Religion is privatised. As in the days of the Judges, people are doing what they see as right in their own eyes.

But it was in the days of the Judges that God used a very small band of people to thwart a vast enemy. Gideon's band of men defeated mighty Midian, and it was as small as it was so that God might be glorified all the more. What cannot God do with a small group of obedient disciples?

It was because they had no king that people did what was right in their own eyes.