Challenging Faith

Drawn By Mary Grace Thul, OP

For those of us sincere about our spiritual journey, we think our sincerity protects us from abuses done in the name of God. Yet, certain stories can shake you and make you stop and reflect. One such story came from Griffith's book Encountering the Sacred in Psychotherapy. This narrative dealt with a family who had a son who suffered from severe diabetes. After attending a healing service, the boy and his parents felt the hand of God upon them, and believed the son was healed. Going forth in faith, they dispensed with the insulin, despite continued symptoms of the disease. Faith, they argued, was what they needed. To use the insulin when they believed he was healed would be to succumb to temptation. They felt the symptoms were there to test them, not to inform them. He died, and the parents were charged with involuntary manslaughter. They thought they were fighting tempation. Instead, they were fighting reason. I wondered, how could faith go so wrong?

Griffith offers his own theory on the subject: spiritual beliefs and practices, intended as doorways into the wholeness of life and relationships can as quickly become doorways to hell...the power of spirituality and religion must be respected but not idealized.  Perhaps this caution should be taken to heart by all of us who believe. Faith should never replace sound reason. Faith is not a magic carpet that takes us over the human frailties of life. Faith is only as good as it makes the believer accept her human condition, and work with it.

Faith gone wrong doesn't just apply to the radical. Nor does it always end so drastically. It is up to us to examine our practice of faith, and discover the contradictions between what we say and how we live. A challenge indeed.