Sometime in the past century, God disappeared from public life. It's not that we became a nation of ardent atheists. A recent survey found that nearly 80% of Australians believe there is a God and pray. According to the last census, 56% of people living in the Highgate area claim allegiance to a Christian denomination. Yet very few people regularly go to church on Sunday. Nothing in the media or the marketplace would suggest that God has any role in our daily lives.
Religion has been privatised. That is, a clear distinction has been drawn between faith and culture. People are still free to believe whatever they like, in fact the need for some sort of spiritual life is increasingly recognised. But this new spirituality deals only with inner, personal issues and experiences. Faith isn't allowed to interfere with life in the "real" world.
Discussion of religious issues in public is rare. Any attempt to turn the conversation towards God is usually considered tacky. Almost all reference to God in government, education and business has been removed, sometimes out of atheistic zeal, but more often because it seems irrelevant to most people. What does God have to do with the price of gold or the cost of living? "Practical atheism", as it has been aptly called, is everywhere.
In some cases practical atheism has merely replaced the hypocritical nodding at religious belief that went on in the past. How many schools or businesses lived up to the biblical texts inscribed above their doors? Nevertheless, the belief that God is irrelevant to most aspects of our lives has had a profound effect on how we live, how we conduct our business, what we find entertaining and how we view each other.
A second aspect of the privatisation of religion stems from the first. Since religion deals only with inward concerns, a person's spiritual life becomes a private matter between themselves and their god or guru. Who or what they believe is their own affair. What is true for you may not be true for me, and certainly won't be true for everyone. People can and do move from one spirituality to another as easily as they change their car.
How has the privatisation of religion affected the church? The most obvious answer is that it makes evangelism difficult. Most people would rather discuss their sex life than their relationship with God. People have become wary of Christianity, which refuses to put up its stall in the spiritual market place, but instead comes making outrageous claims for Jesus as the only way to God.
The relegation of religion to the private sphere has also affected the church's role as a commentator on public morals. It's no longer acceptable for the church to speak in public about government policy or corporate practice. If it does, it will be told to "mind its own affairs". If the church tries to express a Christian view on issues such as homosexuality and abortion, it is labelled moralistic and intolerant. Those who want to reduce crime by teaching "old fashioned morals" often expect the church to do so without mentioning God.
But the privatisation of religion also has a devastating effect within the church. If Christians accept that their relationship with God is a strictly personal matter, their relationship with other Christians changes in subtle but profound ways. The church becomes a place to meet with like-minded people, a sort of religious book club, rather than the (unified) Body of Christ.
Such Christians may tell each other about their experience of God, but they won't see each other as part of that experience. They won't consider it appropriate for other Christians to question their personal life or beliefs, nor will they presume to hold others to account. When they worship together, their worship will be individual rather than communal. It will concentrate on "what the Lord has done for me" rather than celebrating "the Lord's presence with us".
When faith is privatised, the meaning of the great sacraments of the church change. Baptism becomes more a personal declaration of faith and less an initiation into oneness with Christ's body, the church. Communion becomes a reminder of Christ's death for me, rather than a sharing in the body of Christ. Gifts of the Holy Spirit become "my gifts" rather than "God working through me" for the common good.
Christians who see their religion as a private affair seldom confess their sins to one another. Their confession takes place in private, or at best in a nonspecific way as part of the general confession. As a result, they may never know the relief of hearing another Christian tell them that God has forgiven their sin. They may believe that they are greater sinners than anyone else, since they apparently belong to a community of saints. Or they may feel embarrassed when another Christian openly admits their sins, and consequently fail to offer them the declaration of forgiveness they need.
Christians who accept that faith is all about personal relationship with God miss seeing that they are part of something greater than themselves, something which began before they were born and which will go on beyond their death. Much of the Old Testament will be difficult to understand or seem irrelevant. They will fail to hear the scriptures that speak of Christ's death as part of a plan to redeem the whole of creation. Believing that the church is concerned only with "spiritual" things, while government and multinational corporations have all the power in the material realm, they will feel powerless to change the world around them.
Let's affirm what the Bible tells us about God - that he is the only God, the creator of heaven and earth who has power and authority over all things. He is the God of science and history, of society and individuals. Nothing falls outside his knowledge or jurisdiction. He does not allow us to deal with him as a spiritual pick-me-up, one option amongst many. Whether we recognise him as Lord or ignore him, his claim on us remains and one day we will all, Christian and non-Christian alike, be called to give an account of ourselves to him.
Let's recognize our place in God's plan for the world. We are the people of God, the fulfillment of many of the Old Testament prophecies. Our story begins in Genesis, not Matthew. If we find the Old Testament difficult to understand, let's study it with the help of other Christians and the many good books available. Let's also look at what God's word says about the present and the future. Our faith is much more than a plug for the spiritual holes in our private lives.
Let's encourage one another, not just with a pat on the back or a shoulder to cry on, but by speaking the truth (God's word) in love when we see each other falling short. Let's learn to recognise when we need to confess our sins to one another, and when we need to speak out God's forgiveness to another for specific sins. Let's help each other to discover and use the gifts God has given us to build each other up. When we witness a baptism, let's say "We receive and welcome you as a fellow member with us of the body of Christ..." with real conviction. When we celebrate communion, let's hear and rejoice that "We who are many are one body, for we all share in the one bread".
While much of what is offered in the spiritual market place is shallow, irrational or just plain wrong, it still reflects an attempt to meet a very real need. One of the most heartfelt longings in our society is for community, a sense of connectedness and reconciliation with other people, with creation and with "the Other". People are not looking for another organization to belongs to, no matter how friendly it may be. They want to feel part of something that offers hope, for society and the environment as well as themselves. They want to experience something not just with their heads but with their hearts, that lifts them beyond themselves and their mundane lives. The church which is truly the Body of Christ, a true community, will meet those needs.