Courage: A Vital Ingredient in Faith

Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds stared down the barrel of his Nazi captor’s pistol in a German prison camp 71 years ago and refused to say which of his fellow prisoners were Jewish.

“We are all Jews here,” Edmonds, the highest-ranking American noncommissioned officer at Ziegenhain stalag that day, told the officer. Instead, Edmonds ordered more than 1,000 of his fellow prisoners to stand together in front of their barracks. The Geneva Convention required prisoners to give only their name, rank and serial number, not their religion, Edmonds said, warning that if the German shot them all, he would be tried for war crimes.

Edmonds’ words of solidarity spared the lives of as many as 200 Jews on that January day in 1945, according to the New York Times. President Obama recently recognized Edmonds posthumously as the first American service member to be named Righteous Among the Nations, an honor bestowed on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

The need to follow one’s heart

Reading about this made me think about the importance of courage in the search for God – the need to follow one’s heart and mind no matter what others may think. In the past, this may have been a matter of refusing to be religious when everybody else seemed to be. Today, it may be about pursuing God and the religious instinct in the face of mounting indifference and hostility toward religion.

It’s not a matter of being a dissident, of course; there’s no inherent virtue in simply opposing whatever is popular. It’s a matter of being true to yourself. I believe God places the spark of faith in everybody and, open to the Spirit, we use that spark to grow faith.

“Courage is connected with taking risks,” says spiritual writer Henri Nouwen. “Jumping the Grand Canyon on a motorbike, coming over Niagara Falls in a barrel, or crossing the ocean in a rowboat are called courageous acts because people risk their lives by doing these things. But none of these daredevil acts comes from the center of our being. They all come from the desire to test our physical limits and to become famous and popular.

The Risks

“Spiritual courage is something completely different,” he writes. “It is following the deepest desires of our hearts at the risk of losing fame and popularity.”

Courage, spiritual or otherwise, doesn’t come naturally. Perhaps partially due to the instinct for self-preservation, we want to fit in, to be liked and above all, not to be seen as uncool. And in today’s climate, religion is perceived by many as definitively uncool.

The presidential campaigns are a lesson in lack of courage. Though some candidates suck up to one segment of “religion,” they are obviously interested mainly in playing to the crowd. They are eager to tell people what they want to hear and shy away from what is unpopular. I would bet that no campaign manager is hired because of his or her courage.

But are we much different? To what extent do we truly reveal ourselves to others, even to our closest friends, for fear that we may exhibit some unpopular quality or viewpoint? How often do we speak out against racism, sexism and defamation of the poor and marginalized? How often do we jump on the bandwagon of people who promote intolerance, war, capital punishment or abortion?

Faith Brings Challenges

Skeptics searching for God must cultivate courage because they need it. Faith brings challenges. There is, after all, a reason for the expression, “leap of faith.” It requires acceptance of uncertainty and a willingness to “get over ourselves,” and if we are to be “religious,” to show it by the way we live.

A story in Mathew’s gospel relates how religious leaders were showing up to be baptized by John the Baptist. Seeing through their insincerity and cynicism, Jesus minced no words, according to the New American Bible translation.

Calling them a “brood of vipers,” he said they should not say to themselves, “‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” In other words, professing faith is only part of the deal. Belief, and acting on it, requires courage.

For people searching for God, courage may be needed to join or participate more fully in a church  in which you can share your faith with others and worship God “in spirit and in truth.” And it is definitely required to pursue God despite what others may think, and like Sgt. Edmonds, to speak out for others.