Crisis as a Test of Faith

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: Fears about the economy. Anger on the campaign trail. Which concerns you most? How should we respond?

Two crises are overlapping right now, one economic, the other political. The absence of leadership magnifies the threat of recessions. Most religious people approach crises as a test of faith. The setup is modeled on various scriptures. There is David (God tests if a king will give in to lust and betray a friend) Job (God tests a righteous man to see if he will remain righteous), Peter (God tests if a disciple will betray his master), and Jesus himself (God tests if his son will make the ultimate sacrifice). There are many others, of course, beginning with Adam and Eve. These tests clearly follow a pattern:

-- God sets up the test for a reason.
-- You have to figure out the reason.
-- Once you do, passing the test will determine if God loves you or not.
-- You know you've passed the test by how well your life turns out.

The problem with this pattern is that every aspect of it is an illusion. A God of love wouldn't set up horrible calamities in the first place, not to mention that no one has ever had the slightest shred of proof that God's intentions can be read. Figuring out what the test means makes no sense if the crisis was never intentional to begin with. Maybe an economic bubble bursts because that's how bubbles end. Once you emerge from a crisis you feel better, but that doesn't mean God loves you again. Atheists feel better, too. Finally, you can never know that you passed a test, because there's always another crisis around the corner. Does God bring that one because you did so well on the first or because you did so badly?

The truth is that people find it hard to live with the stress of a severe crisis, and this stress is deepened by not knowing what the future will bring. To protect ourselves from panic in the face of the unknown, it's easy to fall back on a higher power who has his (or her) reasons for doing these terrible things but who in the end can be placated once we offer enough obedience, prayers, repentance, and better behavior. To the religious mind, all these things come naturally, but they are probably just social conditioning. In the absence of organized religion and its complicated notions of sin, how would a crisis feel? It would make you feel shaken and insecure, which leads to fear, and fear is often defended against with anger. For millions of people, simply the prospect of change arouses fear and anger. Crises make this tendency worse, because a crisis forces change, and no one reacts well to being forced.

One shouldn't worry about these emotional eruptions. Worry is unproductive. One should do what grownups are meant to do: reassure the child-like part of the self that feels weak and afraid. Standing up and telling others not to be weak and afraid offers a tiny bit of help (Pres. Bush's reassurances in this direction are essentially pointless, for good reason). More good is done by offering credible solutions. At this point, with the Republicans arousing unbridled anger by accusing Obama of consorting with terrorists, recriminations against them do little good. The dark side of human nature can be triggered; that's a psychological fact. The same is true of the economic crisis; people typically give in to runaway fear before they come to the point of confronting it. (The fear generated by 9/11 still has yet to be confronted.)

Ultimately, the restoration of calm will send fear and anger back into their hiding places. Assuming that we have legitimate elections and market stability in the near future, most people will stop being triggered by stress. On the fringes the extremists will continue to provoke our national demons. But it feels as if Sen. Obama, a naturally cautious, deliberate adult, gives little quarter to fear and anger. He will serve as a counter-example to Pres. Bush, whose entire career in office has been fueled by both. A leader who doesn't stoke rage and anxiety will be novel and most welcome. Human nature won't change, but it can be quelled.

Visit www.intent.com to read more from Deepak Chopra and other prominent voices.


http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/deepak_chopra/

Comments

[gfk]

Since no one really knows, I think religion is a coping mechanism. Some of the happiest people I have met have been the born agains. It's like they are on a drug. It makes me a bit jealous to be honest to see these happy bozos so secure in their faith that they just KNOW things.

Thanks for writing blogs Deepak. You have a higher wisdom on things we need now.

[Jonahson]

Both has nothing to do with the Almighty, problems are man created including economic turn down. We can only blame Him for some of His defective products that caused this economic turmoil and the Iraq invasion.

[mamacat]

My comment is in regards to the statement that "The fear generated by 9/11 still has yet to be confronted."

I think that we need to reflect much more about not only what can be done to prevent something like what happened on 9/11 from happening again, but also about how we have reacted to that terrorist act emotionally. I would like to think that if we had been behaving rationally, and less emotionally, it would not have been so easy for Bush and Friends to fool us into invading Iraq. What exactly were we feeling that made us suspend our powers of suspicion long enough to buy into the lies that led to Bush's War?

I think we need to get to the point as a nation where we can have a rational discussion about what our role in the world should be. Every discussion about foreign policy inevitably devolves into a discussion about what we are going to do to those "Islamo-Fascists", as if they were a nation instead of a few terrorists. Some of our leaders, political and military, seem to be in a place where they can think and act rationally about our foreign and domestic problems, but too many of us are still stuck in a place where all we know how to do is get angry and call other people names. How does one reach out to people whose first reaction to every situation is to get angry?

[Dave24]

Something good happens, God did it. Something bad happens, God's testing you. Maybe, just maybe, good things happen, and bad thing happen, and nothing more.

Often we cannot control the circumstances, but certainly we can control how we react to it. Rather than victimize one's self and say God has a plan, it's probably better to make one for yourself.

[Claude203]

Dear Deepak,

Many Americans do not recognize the power of their own minds in creating the world they wish to have. These "calamities" are not the work of God, they are the direct result of too many people focusing on what they fear the most and thereby creating the very thing. It's a crisis in confidence. For now. Our social, political, and cultural thrust of late has focused us toward our lowest desires rather than our highest ideals ... in spite of our own human nature to make progress. But that pent up demand is now manifesting in the form of apparent victory for Obama. But it's not so much about Obama as it is about the wave of humanity that wants to go where he's going. Obama is -- as you have put it -- quite literally "being the change that he wants to see." People who support him like that approach to life. Finally, this momentum may not have been possible had it not been for the contrast provided by the Bush Administration, against which it is now easy to see that change is not only necessary but inevitable. Proving once again that even the most terrible circumstances yield wonderful outcomes -- if we are wise enough and alert enough and "ready" enough to identify and receive them. There's never any such thing as a "crisis." These are learning opportunities on the path of progress.

Thank you!

Claude Johnson
www.blackfivesblog.com

[mimsnpips]

I disagree with the idea there is a political crisis. There would only be a political crisis if Pappy McSame and his sidekick Palin got into office. Now THAT would be a political crisis. Yeah these times are a test of faith, and even more so wisdom. What and where to put meager savings, who gets paid this month, yeah wisdom.