When Faith "Fits"

If you surf the web enough, and take some of the many various little tests and quizzes that people post for your entertainment, you're bound to come across the one that surveys your opinions about God, Church and Theology, then tells you which major religion matches your views.

Like horoscopes, such things are fine when they're not taken seriously, and read only for entertainment value.

A friend of mine actually took this quiz, and on the basis of it, declared herself a convert to Reform Judaism.

Recently on her blog, another friend of mine listed the reasons why she is happy to be a Methodist, the last of which was that the teachings of Methodism suited her.

Forgive me, but that just seems dangerous to me.

Can we really choose our faith "off the rack", to fit us like a suit?

If you accept that the world is real, and that decisions and actions taken in the world have consequences whether we like them or not, it follows pretty easily that the God who made the world is not less real than His creation. If anything, I expect that we'll find God to be substantially more real than the world, just as a photographer is more real than the image in a photograph, just as a model builder is more real than his models.

So if it's possible to say things about the world that are true or not true, so it should also be possible to say things that are true and not true about God.

If I can say that the sky is blue and the grass is green, and be right; or that the world is flat and the sun revolves around it and be wrong; then I can also say things about God that are either true or untrue.

If I, as a Catholic, say that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, and if a Methodist says that the Eucharist is never anything but bread and wine in a symbolic commemoration of a past event, at least one of us is wrong. If Catholicism teaches that the homosexual orientation is intrinsically disordered and contrary to the law of nature, and the Episcopal Church of the USA teaches that homosexuality is just one form of God's gift of sexuality, they can't both be right.

If I believe that artificial contraception is a sin, and my Evangelical friend believes it's a matter of personal conscience, one of us must be in error.

But in deciding to which faith to adhere, I believe a seeker should never succumb to the temptation of drifting towards what is comfortable. It's OK to say, "my body is fine just the way it is, and I'm going to buy a suit to fit it!" But how wise is it to assert, "my soul is fine the way it is, my conscience is properly formed, and I will choose a faith that conforms to me"?

What's the point? If I am an erring, sinning human being, I should want to find the faith that teaches what's true, no matter how much that truth challenges me, no matter how ill-suited it may be initially, and I should try to conform myself to that truth. Unless I am already a saint with no room for improvement, I should think suspect any religion whose entire teaching fit me comfortably.

For any thinking person, the primary reason to hold to a religious faith is because one believes it to be true. Screwtape bragged to Wormwood of the Devil's great success in getting people to no longer inquire as to whether what they read or see is true. It's a great success, indeed.

If you're shopping for the church with the best youth program, then you'll only be lucky if you happen to find the church that teaches the truth.

Sin is what offends God. God gave us a Church to learn his will for us. I believe we'll be held responsible for our best effort to discern what is true, and then conform ourselves to that truth.

And truth exists. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." He promised to send the Holy Spirit to guide us into "all truth". We don't have to settle for just a slice of the pie. We can know the truth, and the truth will set us free.