"Too Personal"

“‘He is my enemy,’ said Evan, simply; ‘he is the enemy of God.’

Mr. Vane shifted sharply in his seat, dropping the eye-glass out of his eye in a momentary and not unmanly embarrassment.

‘You mustn’t talk like that here,’ he said, roughly, and in a kind of hurry, ‘that has nothing to do with us.’

Evan opened his great, blue eyes; ‘God,’ he began.

‘Be quiet,’ said the magistrate, angrily, ‘it is most undesirable that things of that sort should be spoken about – a – in public, and in an ordinary Court of Justice. Religion is – a – too personal a matter to be mentioned in such a place….to talk in a public place about one’s most sacred and private sentiments – well, I call it bad taste…I call it irreverent.’”

What do you think you just read? A scene from a recent crime novel? A snippet of dialogue from a magazine serial I just read?

Guess again. The words I’ve quoted here originate in a book published over a century ago, “The Ball and the Cross” by G. K. Chesterton.

I hope you can see how relevant this passage is to our modern culture. When I picked up this book, I could not predict that I’d be floored by how applicable these words are to my own time. I felt as if rather than commenting on the society of his time, Chesterton had been granted a glimpse into the future and wrote for generations a hundred years away.

Maybe that is exactly what happened – I don’t know.

           
In any case, this passage resonated with me and I knew I needed to discuss what I found in these words.

I’ve grown up in a society where talking about God and faith has been discouraged. I’ve seen the above situation played out – not verbatim, but certainly in spirit – in situations from discussions about separation of Church and state to the awkwardness of bringing up my Catholic faith in non-religious settings.

           
“That has nothing to do with us,” society seems to say. Even within families this seems to be an issue. What’s the rule for Thanksgiving dinner? “Talk about anything except religion and politics.”

           
For a long time, I’ve subscribed to the view that religion underpins an individual’s worldview. It doesn’t matter if a person worships at the altar of God or at the altar of something lesser – fame, money, an ideal, science, oneself – everyone has a religion.

Religion provides the framework for life: if a person takes his or her faith seriously, that faith will help determine how this person lives. My Catholic faith affects how I work, who I go to for help, and (hopefully) how I interact with others at the most basic level. As even the magistrate recognizes, these are very personal matters and “one’s most sacred and private sentiments.”

Some might argue that religion is TMI, or too much information. It’s a topic that’s too personal, too taboo to mention in public. It makes people uncomfortable.

That’s my impression of how my modern culture feels. But, I would like to argue that when we lock out religion and discussions of faith, when we ban the topic from the public sphere, as a society we are saying that we don’t care about the one of the most fundamental elements of a person’s existence, and because of that, we don’t really care about the person.

It’s like saying that we want a person to create a public mural but their paints and tools and experience from art classes have to remain at home. Have you ever tried baking a cake without referring to the instructions or any of the lessons your mom taught you about kitchen safety? You just can't - at least, you can't do that and expect to have unburned fingers and a finished product anything like what you wanted it to be.
“Bring your skills and lesser qualities to work, but leave your immortal soul and your entire understanding of life at home.” That’s pretty utilitarian, but that’s how life seems sometimes. Forbid the thought that we should ever interact with integrated individuals who are the same person at home as they are at work or in the grocery store or at the park.

So what are we to do? We have two options: we can stay quiet about our faith and go with the flow like our culture tells us. Or, we could push ourselves to open up about our faith and how important it is in our lives. Religion is such a fundamental aspect of each individual that it shouldn’t be – it can’t be – swept under covers and kept out of sight.

So speak out. Tell the world what Jesus has done for you. Tell your coworkers and classmates and friends the real reasons why you act the way you do.

I know I’m going to keep quiet and mess up at times, but I am going to try to bring my Catholic faith to the world. It may not want such a personal element of me, but that is what I have to share with it.