FAULT LINES AND FAITH

I’ve been heavy this week. I mean like a saggy beanbag sighing itself into a heap.

It’s the world, mostly. It’s not exactly a hot take but clearly society is fracturing. I mean it. Things are ripping apart like tectonic plates, pulling along depressing fault lines: things that didn’t used to be disputable at all, like democracy, the shape of the planet, oh yeah, and how you can actually tell what’s true and what isn’t!

That’s a big one. It used to be that you could rely on science - dedicated men and women who set their purpose on being impartial about what they discovered about the universe. Apparently, their photographs of a spherical Earth, their graphs of rising temperatures, and their grim-faced warnings are no longer enough.

Then there are those trusted voices in the media. We’ve always known of course, that newspaper journalists haven’t always been truthful with us. You take gossipy celeb stories with a pinch of salt, I thought. But these days that arched eyebrow of scepticism is reflected back at all of them - the TV, the newsreaders, the internet companies with vested interests, and of course the sticky-fingered moguls who pull the strings behind the scenes. Can we trust them? At best we don’t know.

And at worst, the alternative media are busy pulling us into outlandish theories about it all. “Trust them?” scream the wild-eyed proponents behind their giant podcast mics, “Absolutely you can’t trust them. But you can trust us!”

And there you go, a new fault line emerges like a crack in the porcelain. You’re pulled down the rabbit hole, someone else you used to be close to is left to wake up from The Matrix all on their own.

I’m not trying to take sides here. I’m just pointing out that the world is collapsing like a china teacup, and society is being pulled apart as trust and truth get eroded. Call it post-postmodern if you like, or post-truth, or post-science, but it’s happening, and it is terribly depressing.

Where do we fit in as people of faith? This is so hard to tell. You could argue I suppose that religion was at its peak in the prescientific world, when priests told you everything you needed to know about the nature of the world and your expected response. You could also prove I expect, that people, me, you, and all of us, need something to believe in. Or perhaps someone. And that seems like a good place to be if you, like me, know Jesus. After all, if he is who he says he is, then he is exactly what people lost in a truthless world need.

The problem is that without him, people who claim to be ambassadors for him, have nothing but yet another empty promise - and that seems like exactly what most of the non-believing world see - just another shapeless Aslan with no power to save a deluded Narnia at all.

All I can think about today is trying to change the world slowly, around me. I imagine that that’s all I really have responsibility for - this little sphere of influence, this tiny portion of Planet Earth. I can’t influence a million people today - actually, I don’t think I really want to. I can be kind to a handful. I can show a few what Jesus looks like, I can prove at least some of the truth to be true, I hope.

I’d better hope, I suppose. Everything seems terribly dark without that tiny little light flickering.