An unusual -- even radical-middle! --- take on the question...
http://emergingpastor.com/2009/04/23/PublicOrPrivateFaith.aspx
I've recently been challenged to think about whether our faith should
be a public or private affair. To generalize both positions:
Some people advocate that our faith should be a public as possible.
That we should shout it from the rooftops and insert it into all parts
of life, whether it's wanted or not. These people advocate a faith
that not only informs the conscience but writes public policy.
Advocates of private faith believe we should keep our faith out of
public life, off the T.V., out of politics and some even go to the
extreme that it would be wrong to evangelize or even speak to another
person about our faith in case we accidentally convert them.
I learned early on in my life that when confronted with two extremes
we are more than likely missing the point. It seems a tool of the
Devil to push us towards the extreme ends of the spectrum on any issue
and not allow us to be reflective or nuance in our positions and
reply. I take that position here.
Sure, the bible talks about private faith, Jesus encouraged us to pray
locked up in the pantry, but he also commissioned us to go into all
the world and live lives of public example. So what are we to do? How
should we live our faith?
Let me advocate this, we should not have either a public or a private
faith, rather we should have a personal faith.
A personal faith is one that shy's away from boycotts of specific
groups and instead builds relationships with people who they hold
differing opinions on.
The motivation of that statement is, as a pastor, emerging or
otherwise, you will be asked to stand up and denounce many groups of
people, many activities and even products and services. One week a
congregant might ask you to speak out against homosexuality and gay
marriage, the next week it's drug users, and the week after it's
prostitutes.
It's ironically easy to mount the high horse when talking about these
issues, be it an inclusive or an exclusive response. There are those
extremes again. When asked to address a difficult topic, a default
response is to saddle up and denounce a group or through[sic] the
church doors open and say all are welcome.
A personal faith does something different, it seeks to intentionally
build relationships with those we are being called to single out, and
an emerging pastor will lead those who follow them to do the same.
By way of example, I used to have a very slanted view of prostitutes
and prostitution. I was very against prostitution but I also held the
prostitute in very low esteem, something not someone, and certainly
not a person worthy of my time.
Since then I have made an effort to meet those in the trade; firstly
to see them as people and then to understand why they are where they
are and what help I may offer to them. Doing so has not made me regard
prostitution favorably, if anything it has made me even more angry
about it, because of what it does to the practitioners.
A personal faith, one that built a relationship with this marginalized
group helps me to love them without loving what they do.
So instead of setting up groups of people as our enemy, let us do as
Abraham Lincoln suggests and destroy our enemy by making them our
friends.
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