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On Faith
The Rev. John Heidel
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Values guide you in putting faith to use
THE STORY is told about a rabbi and a soap maker who were taking a walk through their village. The soap maker was proclaiming the apparent failure of religion around the world.
"Despite all of the teachings, rituals, sacred writings and beliefs, there is still a lot of poverty, hunger, crime and violence in the world. So, what good is religion?"
The rabbi pondered this as they walked in silence until he noticed a child playing beside the road. Because the child had become quite dirty, the rabbi said, "Just look at that poor child; with all the soap in the world, that child is still filthy. It makes one wonder, what good is soap after all?"
"But," the soap maker protested, "for soap to do any good, it must be used."
"Indeed," replied the rabbi, "so it is with religion."
I've often thought about the difficulty of putting religion to good use. Part of the challenge is sorting through the complexity of religious doctrine. However, I suspect an even greater obstacle is the necessity of putting faith into practice. Creating the proper balance between belief and practice is a constant challenge.
What we believe is important will provide the foundation and the guidelines for the living of our faith, whether it is as a Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Bahai or other form of spirituality. The beauty and wisdom inherent in our religious diversity is incredible. There is a lot we can learn from each other.
Once we are secure in the foundation of our personal faith, we then have the responsibility of acting upon it. For a good start, most spiritual traditions have a version of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
In addition, my life has been guided by two scriptures from the Judeo-Christian tradition. One is a verse from the prophet Micah where we are instructed, "Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God." The second is the teaching of Jesus to love God, love others and love oneself.
A solid foundation in Christian beliefs, rituals and traditions provide me with the framework and responsibility to put these teachings into practice, as best as I'm able. These basic teachings create the focus and inspiration to become fully alive and fully engaged in community and world concerns.
All religions have similar teachings that move believers from discussion and ritual to practice and living. Today we are witnessing the cooperation of a variety of faith-based groups who are looking beyond doctrinal differences to the humanity we have in common.
We are working together to address the housing crisis, the problems of substance abuse and increasing violence, the possibilities of restorative justice, and the proper stewardship and care of the earth.
Perhaps we can also find a way to unite around the equally important concerns of modeling moral principles, improving family life, making good decisions and maintaining good relationships.
In these ways we would be putting our faith into practice. We would be putting our religion to good use. We might even make some headway toward reducing the poverty, hunger, crime and violence in the world.
The Rev. John Heidel is retired as a minister with the United Church of Christ and is president of the Interfaith Alliance Hawaii.
