Have you lost faith?
Posted by Steve on August 16th, 2007 filed in FaithI read Digg a lot, and for a community with a large percentage of atheists and agnostics, there are a surprising number of popular submissions about religion. Many of the articles concerning religion are fairly negative, and you can really feel the hostility towards religion when you read the comments. I actually plan on writing a response to this animosity towards faith on Digg, but that’s not for today.
The article I found today is very relevant to the blog here. It’s called ”Religion beat became a test of faith”
The author is a writer for the LA Times and the article describes his faith journey.
I recommend reading it, but here is a short synopsis- the author describes a sincere acceptance of Christ in his late 20’s and then outlines the tests his faith endured as the religion beat writer for the Times. His jobs exposes him to the darkest sides of Christianity, he starts to realize he cannot reconcile his questions about faith, and he eventually comes to realize that he can no longer believe in God. It is a heartfelt article, more of a memoir than anything else. As a Christian it is difficult to read, especially as the author describes the extreme hypocrisy within the church.
He reported much about the Catholic church sex scandal, and that seemed to affect him deeply. He also wrote about the TV network TBN, and how it’s leaders and pastors lived in appalling luxury, taking money from people with the promise that God will bless them for their generosity.
He concludes with this,
“My soul, for lack of a better term, had lost faith long ago — probably around the time I stopped going to church. My brain, which had been in denial, had finally caught up.
Clearly, I saw now that belief in God, no matter how grounded, requires at some point a leap of faith. Either you have the gift of faith or you don’t. It’s not a choice. It can’t be willed into existence. And there’s no faking it if you’re honest about the state of your soul.”
In a sense I agree with him, belief does require a leap of faith. Faith is pretty much defined that way. But I struggle with his statement that “you either have the gift of faith or you don’t.” I cannot believe that to be true. I think everyone has the capacity for faith. Why do some believe and some not? I have ideas, but really I don’t know at all.
My own fear
The article struck me most of all because I could relate to the author. I have some of the same questions about faith, and one of my greatest fears is that my faith will fade. However, while I can see and lament the problems within the church, I also can see a lot of Christians doing things right. At school, I know many amazing people that are yearning to serve God the best way possible. We should never ignore our hypocrisy, but we should also shouldn’t forget when we do things right.
atheism Christianity digg doubt faith God hypocrisy problems in the churchPopularity: 24% [?]
16 Responses to “Have you lost faith?”
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- ashton: to Tarugs i belive that god made us to much in his imeage that he fears us koz in a why we to are like hime...
- ashton: i have lost my faith and i need help i will admit im not the best Catholic today was the first time i walked...
- tony_007: Ok can anyone tell me how on earth the Universe happen and I know Big Bang but my quiz is What was there...
- Chris: I like what you have said, this makes me happy.
- susan: i was christened in the church as a baby, confirmed in the faith as a middle-schooler, raised in the church,...
Recent Comments
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:09 pm
[…] Krager presents Have you lost faith? | faithdoubt posted at faithdoubt. This is a posting in response to an article about an LA Times writer and his […]
August 26th, 2007 at 5:50 am
A church to which I belonged fell apart after a woman with whom he had a 7-year affair brought this fact to light. More came to light: he stole from his congregation by charging them for counseling. He used the jobs in the church and other resources as gifts he could dispense to whom he pleased as if he were some sort of king. The resentment brewing in the place was close to the surface when the other bad news broke. People found it easy to walk away, to judge, to hate. Such was the nature of their faith. The experience taught me that faith is not a church but a way of being. These people taught me the most important lesson I have ever learned. They have also challenged me to be compassionate.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
[…] phrase is overused and I get cynical about those things). Part of it was reading the article about losing faith that I linked to earlier. That affected me more deeply than I originally thought. I’ve been […]
January 4th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Hey! The Bible clearly states that there were people who were incapable of believing in God because God ‘hardened their hearts’. The best example is the Pharaoh who opposed Moses but there are several other individuals and groups of people in the same situation ( eg Jews who worshipped other gods than JAHVEH in Old Testamental times). Also, consider the fact, that God has an unlimitted knowledge and while creating you already knows whether you’ll go to hell or not and still he is fine with the idea of eternal condemnation and lack of faith in people. Offcourse, we are said to have free will but why wouldn’t the omnipotent God give life only to those individuals he knows to live a good, faithful life once created?
April 5th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Hi, i have always been a prayer before my partner commit sucide, it has been 18months now i m still very sad about it and blame to god, why can’t he save him, that is all i have been thinking and why can’t i save him, now i have lost my faith with god and myself, i know this is not God’s fault, but i just can’t bring myself to pray any more, if i ever go to church only thing i do is cry and lots of negative emomtions…. i don’t like it, i think time will fix things
April 12th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
MANSA…
Dear child, please accept my sympathies. May I offer some help? I have been suicidal and thank God, didn’t kill myself. Please know that your partner was hurting for some reason we might never know this side of heaven. Please know that depression is an illness. But for you, the help is, what you are feeling is to be expected. Sometimes the grief never goes away. That is what is “normal”. There is no timeline to grieve, except that it takes a lot longer than you might expect to get through the grieving process. Also you need to get some professional help — not medication, but you need to find a suicide survivors support group to help you grieve. It hurts, and it is scary, but I promise that there are groups of people out there, and they have lost a loved one through suicide. It will help you know that you are not alone, you are not the only one. You will have a safe environment where you can process all these emotions. I know this is not God’s fault — nothing is His “fault” but sometimes we have anger towards Him. He can take your anger, He understands. He wants to go through your struggles with you, He does not want you to be left alone in this time.
So please, find a support group. I don’t know which one, but I know you are grieving an impossible grief, and that it is very real. This pain is real and there are loving safe people who you can relate with, so that you can grieve and have help doing so. Time may fix things, but it is OK if you are always sad about your loss. I have lost friends and loved ones and I will always miss them and I will always love them. Please find a suicide surviors support group. Ask your church or any church in your town, ask a trusted friend or coworker to help you find help. Ask your human resources manager even. Or call the suicide hotline and ask them for references. Reach out and find a safe place for you to grieve. The grieving will go away but the memory of your loved one never will and there will always be a part of you that will hurt and miss them. It is natural and normal and OK to hurt and also to seek help with your hurt. Lastly, always pray to God and be honest with Him, asking Him for guidance and peace and if you are angry with Him or your partner, you can tell God, because He knows everything about you. Just saying it out loud can help. God bless you and I am alive because I got help and discovered that I am no alone. Neither are you!
May 25th, 2009 at 12:07 am
MANSA,
You get 80 years on this earth, maybe less. You can spend that time spreading a possible lie, or you can live. If it takes depending on that all powerful external locus of control to go about your day, like so many others need, whatever. Will God heal you? Perhaps, but there has never been proof of divine intervention… My advice to you is to try to move on, and trust in TIME. Time heals wounds, that has been proven. Have faith in time.
May 28th, 2009 at 5:09 am
I recently became a closet agnostic after 33 years of being raised and raising my family in an evangelical home. My father is a pastor and my family is very involved in our local church. I have never been a gung ho christian and couldn’t understand why. Then I read a popular Christian book that outlines the reasons why the Bible and Christ are real. The book had the absolute opposite effect on me.
As freeing as this realization has been for me, it has paralyzed me at the same time. Knowing it will devastate my family and circle of friends and could end my marraige, I have decided for the short term to keep it under wraps. I struggle with this daily and am trying to determine how best to live my life from here.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Wouldn’t it be nice if faith was a rocky river, challenging you to hold on in spite of reason, and other such limited worldly perceptions that we humans have? What if God was really up there, looking down on everyone and putting them through emotional, physical, and mental turmoil just to make sure that they continued to “believe?” It would be nice, but unfortunately, Christians who believe this can’t even agree among themselves what the nature of this God and His judgment would be. Some think of God as one who would condemn nonbelievers to hell; others see him as a forgiving God, who would reveal the truth at death and forgive their lack of belief. Others simply don’t know, but hold onto faith anyway (or at least they say they do). Ultimately, faith is arbitrary, since most people struggle with all sorts of doubt, but outwardly force themselves to display faith. Faith is strongest when coincidence seems to surely validate the existence of whatever deity a religious person may be praying to. But coincidence after prayer occurs in all religions, not just Christianity, so who is to say that the Christian God is the one causing it? Especially after all the other inconsistencies and falsehoods of the Bible are considered. The world is indeed mysterious, but faith ultimately closes the mind to other truths, and while it does bring positive change into peoples’ lives, at what cost?
January 16th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
what happens when your strong and sure clear faith vanishes and becomes a luke warm soft centred apathetic option for more than 8 years? How would God in his love let this happen?
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:49 am
I too seem to have lost faith. Not in the fact of belief in a God, I believe there probably is one. But in the fact that I’m not really sure I can trust IN him again. Which is almost ironic; out here on my own without him feels wrong. I can’t go back the way I came and I can’t go forward. We all need something to believe in, right? I mean, what we believe defines who we are ultimately, doesn’t it?
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:17 am
I relate to you digitalfaith. You described exactly how i feel right now and for the past 10 years i have also felt apathetic and almost emotionless to my faith which once was a well spring but now feels like a distant dream. I have prayed, gone to meetings and even discussed this growing fear of vanished faith within me but still no one has an answer - especially church people who will say something like “you were never truly one of us” and my all time fav ‘or you should pray more!’
I mean what is it with these ‘christians’? Its like some kind of righteousness placed in their hands or what> who made them God? I have been to church but these days just feel slightly disconnected and constantly feel like what they believe is different to what i do….
I cant see a way forwards at this time. I feel happy but i want that deep assuring faith i experienced that blew everything else away…. But the doubts remain and cause me to suffer heavy depression often….
June 10th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
I have lost my faith a long time ago. I still go to church for the sake of my family.
I believe that god, if he ever exists, doesn’t give a damn about what we do. At some point after creation, he lost interest in us and left us like a used toy. Otherwise, earth would be a paradise right now.
August 5th, 2010 at 10:01 am
i was christened in the church as a baby, confirmed in the faith as a middle-schooler, raised in the church, married in the church, brought my husband to my church, and christened my child in the church. i did it out of tradition and to please my family, but can’t do it anymore. i remember doubting religion from a very young age, as i watched the adults in church lie, steal, have affairs, be arrested for cocaine trafficking, etc…all the people around me were full of it. they judge every move everyone made and didn’t live well themselves. people ruined religion for me.
i believe in god, think jesus was a great man, but have never been able to reconcile the “rules” that everyone that’s not a christian is going to hell. i think “heaven and hell” are right here, right now, whichever you choose to live in–not some fiery underworld you’ll be sentenced to if you don’t believe or some puffy clouded wonderland you get invited to if you believe in one particular religion–makes it sound like god’s a bouncer at a nightclub.
i struggle with raising my child in the church and have not settled on my decision. maybe if i’d “found god” as an adult, things would be different. i sometimes look at people that are born again and wish it were that easy for me–that i wasn’t a thinker at all and just blindly went with it, questioning nothing. ignorance is bliss, they say. any thoughts on how i can move forward? and please don’t say prayer, i already do that.
August 19th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
i have lost my faith and i need help i will admit im not the best Catholic today was the first time i walked in to a church. i have sinned so meny times and now i just wish to be forgiven for my sins. i just lost my grilfriend and she was the very first girl i have ever opend my heart to and to lose her i have done so meny stupid things dont get me roung i haven hit her and i will never hurt a girl or any girl and i couldnt live with myself if i did but i have siad mean things to her and i have asked her if i could meet up today to ask for her forgivness but i love her so much that i just wont her to be happy even if thats not with me i no my problem isnt as grave as others and to the other peoples problems i no its not much but im so sorry for you and if i could help i would. my cross brock the other day as well plz not say that god has now forgotten me and i wont to no if he hasnt and he has a plan for every on whats mine what am i to do then only thing im good at is im strong im not smart and im good at art and thats it plz tell me what to do?
August 19th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
to Tarugs
i belive that god made us to much in his imeage that he fears us koz in a why we to are like hime we can make life and we can take it away. we can creat as well we gave life to computers cars and every thing we made was made by our hand and i feel like god if sceard that if he shows his self we would fight him in anger and hate and out of fear if fight and hate what we dont under stand we even killed jesus out of fear hate because we didnt understand him. and what would we do if god come to us now with the weapons we have now god is all powerfull but we all forget he made us in his own imeage and in doind so he gave us power and with this power we creat and we kill in all differnt ways in the name of god in the name of hate and in the the way other people look and feel and in what they bleave people say world pease will help us no it wont even angles fight and kill we are no differnt we fight we kill ever sinch mans firest steps we fort and god look at us and siad what have i done.