Hard to Talk, or Write, About God

“It’s Getting Harder to Talk about God,” declares a recent opinion piece in the New York Times.

Author Jonathan Merritt, who describes himself as “the son of a prominent megachurch pastor,” decries “a decline in our spiritual vocabulary” that makes it hard for modern people to relate to religion.

“More than 70 percent of Americans identify as Christian,” Merritt writes, “but you wouldn’t know it from listening to them. An overwhelming majority of people say that they don’t feel comfortable speaking about faith, most of the time.”

I believe that’s true, but I don’t think the problem – as the writer proposes – is that people don’t know the churchy vocabulary. It’s much deeper than that. It’s that people, for many, well-known reasons, see religion as irrelevant. They know that many others feel the same and are embarrassed to talk about something that others don’t care about.

Decidedly Uncool

Most of us disdain being perceived as antiquated, and talking about God and religion is decidedly uncool. And apart from the cool factor, many people have serious questions about such subjects that haven’t been satisfactorily answered.

But the problem, as I see it, isn’t that people take those questions seriously but that they don’t take them seriously enough. I suspect many spend little time or effort trying to get answers.   

Regarding the religious vocabulary, I believe we should move away from churchy jargon and speak in a clear, direct way about faith, using words and phrases that people today are likely to understand.

Still, as I am painfully aware in writing a blog about faith, it IS hard to talk about God because fewer and fewer people are interested at a time when the world needs God more than ever. I believe people are reluctant to give this blog a “like” or “share” on Facebook, for instance, because their friends will see they may be interested in religion.

Appreciates “Likes” or “Shares

(I know. It could be that they just don’t like my viewpoint or writing style, or me, but I think it’s more than that. I greatly appreciate those who do give the blog a “like” or “share,” by the way.) 

As a believer, I suspect that so many of society’s problems – poverty, violence, family estrangement and disintegration, our obsession with sex and consumerism, our mistreatment and wastefulness of the earth and its resources – are at least partially the result of our communal antipathy toward God.

I’ve been re-reading the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, and one of its constant themes is the trouble that comes to people who ignore God. Of course, for many in the Old Testament the consequences were seen as immediate and harsh because they imagined God as similar to the tyrants of the time.

But that so many Christians, especially – people who have heard Jesus’ words on these subjects over and over – are unwilling to put his words into practice and apply his teachings to them is discouraging. And I believe that’s one of the reasons many people consider religion irrelevant.

Clinging to God

However, though it may be hard to talk, and write, about God today, a great many people – most of whom go about their business unnoticed – cling to God in love and faith and show it in the way they live.

All of this brings to mind Jesus’ story, mentioned in the gospels of Mathew, Mark and Luke, about the fate of seed that falls on a foot path, a rock, among thorns and on good soil. Here’s how Jesus explained his parable.

“The seed is the Word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts…. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy; but these have no roots. They believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

“And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.”