Religious faith is personal. The sentiment has been repeated so often that it nearly seems self-evident. Without doubt, it has become a ground rule for acceptable public discourse and interaction. Author and apologist Ravi Zacharias refers to this phenomenon as the “privatization” of religion:
Privatization may be defined as the socially required and legally enforced separation of our private lives and our public personas; in effect, privatization mandates that issues of ultimate meaning be relegated to our private spheres.1/
Even George W. Bush, who has been described as “among the most openly religious presidents in U.S. history,”2/ often says that faith is personal.3/
I agree that faith, in many ways, is and should be personal. Let’s start with an uncontroversial example. Faith is not and ought not be a requirement for public office. Not since the Colonial period has belief in the Christian religion been a requirement for public office, and I have not heard anyone call for a resurrection of religious tests. God does not use his omnipotence to force people into submission, and we, likewise, ought not use the coercive power of the state (or any other apparatus) to force people to believe. For similar reasons, faith does not and ought not determine who the real American patriots are. “You’re equally an American if you choose to worship an [A]lmighty and if you choose not to. If you’re a Christian, Jew or Muslim, you’re equally an American.”4/
Expressions of faith tend to differ from person-to-person, and thus, in that sense are personal. Even members of the same religion may express their shared beliefs in a great variety of ways. Contrast, for example, President Bush, who has freely shared the importance and positive effects of his faith, with former presidential hopeful Howard Dean, a self-described “deeply religious person” who is “not ashamed to admit” to being Christian. “But I don’t go around wearing it on my sleeve. . . . I think that’s a private matter,” says Dean.5/
Faith is personal in that one person’s religious convictions cannot save another person’s soul. Your faith, for instance, in the saving grace of Jesus Christ cannot reconcile your spouse, your best friend, or anyone else with God. While not an expert in the various religions of the world, I suspect this view is not unique to Christianity.
My faith goes to the core of my character, my conduct and my motivations. In this sense, faith is deeply personal. It defines who I am. It directs my daily life. How we each choose to answer the metaphysical questions of the meaning and origin of life effects virtually every subsequent decision we make, the consequences of which may be eternal. In my case, a change in the content of my faith has led to different decisions on issues big and small: about where to live, what to do for a living, how to nurture and educate my children, what to read, what movies to see, what to eat, what to drink, how to greet the neighbors in the morning, how to react to rude or aggressive behavior, and so on.
1/ RAVI ZACHARIAS, DELIVER US FROM EVIL: RESTORING THE SOUL IN A DISINTEGRATING CULTURE 105 (1997).
2/ Alan Cooperman, Bush Leaves Specifics Of His Faith To Speculation: President Is Openly Religious But His True Beliefs Remain Mystery, Washingtonpost.com, Sept. 16, 2004, available at <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6014570> (visited June 7, 2005).
