Faith is a firm belief in something of which there is no proof
For my final blog post I wanted to go over some of the information that I gathered from interviewing multiple people who were Christians or are currently a member of the Christian faith. I wanted to analyze the idea of faith, and how being in a Christian culture effects a person.
First and foremost, being a realist I find religion to be a very frustrating concept. Perhaps this is because I know that the mind of man is flawed and weak. I have a tough time believing in the Bible when I know it was written by man, manipulated by politics and ideals throughout the centuries. On the other hand, spirituality is something I can believe in. To me, it seems that faith is a much more closely related to spirituality than religion.
I think that this firm affirmation is what creates communication tension between Christians and non-Christians. For a more simplistic example, If I called a chair “cat”, you would correct me, would you not? Everyone knows a chair is called “chair” it just seems odd that someone would not. That is how my interviewees view their own religion. I try to bring factual realism to the conversation and I am met with humored rejection. They say, “What do you mean there is no proof of God’s existence? What do you think the Bible is? Or the sky? Or our ability to give birth? Or our very existence?”. They shake their head is dismay because their faith has made religion something they know. Christian cultural values as they relate to Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck value orientations (M&N p.101) seem to weave within the entire chart. Human nature is basically evil, destined for sin, which is why the religion offers forgiveness and penance while we struggle to find balance between good and evil. My interviewees expressed dislike in the idea that Christians would aggressively recruiter new member but are content to openly judge others for not sharing their values. I find this juxtaposition of views really ironic, and to further add insult to their naiveté I would like to quote to them Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven”. The majority of my interviewees felt that their religion gave them morals and values that somehow elevated their status as a human being. In essence, their faith is their biggest support and also a massive obstacle in communications. To be openminded, loving, forgiving requires a person to hold off on judgement. Each Christian is individualistic with “tendency to emphasize individual identities, beliefs..”(M&N p.55) or int he case of Christianity they worry about their own soul first then everyone else's. Being a Christian is not a bad thing though, having a common faith creates a sense of community that extends world wide, opening doors, giving trust, crossing languages, genders, and even nationalities.
I asked all my interviewee's “What would you say to others who are unable to create enough faith to believe in a religion?” Richard responded, “I would say these people are free-thinkers who understand that there truly is a difference between being spiritual and being religious. I would, also, say that as free-thinkers, these people have had questions about a certain denomination or maybe even more than one, and they haven’t had their questions sufficiently answered to buy what is being sold to them.” Richard believes in the spirituality of the Christian faith more than the written word. Whereas John responded, “If you believe and repent of your sins, you will be closer to Heaven. If, for some reason there is no God and no Heaven, what have you got to lose?”; also an excellent point. Both of these Christians offer their perspective on faith and I personally find both of them to be worthy of mulling over. What do I have to lose? It’s the faith in man’s interpretation of God I lack.
Works Cited
Martin & Nakayama, (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts 6th edition, McGraw-Hill.
The Holy Bible, King James Version. New York: American Bible Society: 1999; Bartleby.com, retrieved 26 April 2013.
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