More Aware than You Realize

The Word
I wanted originally to title this post "More Aware than You Are," but I did not think that title would do justice to the topic of this post - namely the sermon preached in church this morning. That sermon was entitled "More Ready Than You Realize."

Before I discuss the actual content of the sermon itself I would like to highlight one of the Biblical verses the speaker cited. That verse, 1 Pet 3:15ff, advises the reader to be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks him to give the reason for the hope that he has, doing so in gentleness and respect in order that his conscience might be kept clear so as to bring shame upon anyone who would speak maliciously of the reader's good behaviour. One can see parallels between this and the kind of advice one might give to the recently divorced parent with a grudge against her former husband. Act nicely, keep your conscience clear, be lavish in your good deeds to your children when they visit. In that way, when the other parent has his visitation turn, you can bring shame upon him when he tries to slander you to your children.

The Case Study
Now the sermon detailed the speaker's email-based conversations with a college student named April, who had been feeling recently that she wanted "to become a christian, and maybe even start going to church and stuff." However, she explained, she was turned off by the religious language and the prospects of brainwashings etc. In short, she held a position similar to my own with respect to my ever becoming a Christian again.

Humbly, I submit the following argument. Where April and I differ is not in the perfectly normal feeling of attraction one might experience every now and again toward this or that social group. Instead, where she and I differ is in the ranking of motivational factors. By motivational factors I mean those factors which contribute to one's decision to perform some action or adopt some lifestyle.

The Inappropriate Example
It has taken many hard-won life lessons for me to realize that peer pressure, or more broadly persuasion through means other than argumentative ones, is NOT an acceptable motive for doing any act, whether that act be substance abuse (ironically I seem historically to have paid little heed to the fact that peer pressure occurs in contexts other than those drug-related ones meticulously drilled into my head during my primary and high school days), purchasing gym memberships, or converting to religions.

April, on the other hand, appears to trust exclusively her gut feelings, her emotions, and even her dreams. For example, she felt that the speaker's book provided a better presentation of Christianity and so she felt more drawn toward Christianity. Evidently, April fell into a kind of crisis, which culminated in a dream in which the speaker poured cold water on her head and performed a baptism rite. April's dream ended with her repeatedly thanking the speaker and telling him that she had been "thinking about this for awhile, but wasn't sure [she] was ready," to which the speaker responded, "You've been ready for a long time," and gave her a hug.

What April neglects to do, however, is to examine calmly and rationally what exactly is happening in her life. Does she ever consider whether she is experiencing peer pressure? After all, her boyfriend is a Christian, and she even talks about the speaker's knowing how to "handle" his readers. Does she ever question whether or not God (that of course being the Christian God) exists? Apparently not, since she claims that "more and more the idea of playing [the harp] for and through God has sounded appealing."

At the risk of sounding like a Freud or a Jung, I suspect that April is as much a Christian during her tormented crisis as I was an atheist during my time as a Christian. Her dream seems to me to be an expression of something she already believed.

Conclusion
In sum then, April does a horrible job examining her motivations. Instead she appears to be trying to become a Christian all along through the road of conflict and dialog with the speaker. The speaker fails in demonstrating through April that many in the secular world are "more ready than you realize," simply because he uses the example of someone who evidently has no concept of self reflection and instead accepts as sufficient evidence her emotions and her dreams.

I, on the other hand, was more aware than might be realized. I was and am still aware of the fact that I do not need a mob of people encouraging me to believe in the reality of my friend Chad in order for me to be convinced of his existence. Unfortunately, I have depended all too often upon social encouragement in order to be convinced of God's existence and of his loving plan for me.

I hope that there are more people who do reflect on their own motivations than those that do not. I should be quite disheartened to learn that part of the reason Christianity and religion in general is so successful is due to the lack of self reflection among the general populace.

Epilogue
I hope that I have not come down too hard on human emotion or on social interaction. I believe those two to be of paramount importance to the human experience. What I tried to make clear in this post was that reliance solely upon emotion or upon peer pressure in decision making is an irresponsible and even dangerous thing.