You may have heard that Australia now has its first female Prime Minister. What you may not have heard, is that she is also an Atheist.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says “I’m not going to pretend a faith I don’t feel.” Well that is a starting point. I suppose there are any number of leaders of countries who feel the same way but don’t have the stones to admit it for fear of political liability. Ahem.
What strikes me about her statement is that she refers to faith as a feeling. This seems a common misconception. Faith, like love, is not a feeling but a decision. I have have often thought that this misunderstanding of the nature of things is one of the primary weaknesses of our culture.
Generations have now taken to the view that love is a feeling. When that feeling fades, well its time to dump your partner and find someone else who gives you that ‘feeling.’ The feeling, above all, must be maintained. We have, in muddled modern thinking, a right to feel love and that right trumps any and all obligations.
Of course, rational adults understand that love is a decision. Or rather, love is a series of daily decisions to put the welfare of others ahead of your own. Anyone who has been married a while understands that the initial giddiness of a relationship fades and that love is continuous. The wonderful thing is that often, if we stick with it, we are later graced with wonderful periods of affection and happiness that are icing on the cake.
So too with faith. Faith is not a feeling but a decision we make every day. A decision of love. To put an unseen God at the forefront every single day. In short, a decision to love God. And it comes with icing on the cake. Like any relationship of love, it is sometimes accompanied with the wonderful “feeling” of love. These times are a Grace to be treasured.
Faith, like love, is a daily decision. I pray for Ms. Gillard that she may one day make that same decision of faith and love. I pray for her not because I expect her affection in return. I pray for her because I love her. I love her because God loves me. Its been decided.
June 29, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Thanks for post. As an Australian, I am not at all happy about our new Prime Minister. I am sure she is Pro-choice, but try and find an Australian politicion who isn't. Anyway, I hope and pray that the Lord's Spirit may find a way to open Julia's heart to Christian truths.
June 29, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Great post! I like the tie into the whole decision aspect of love and faith. Of course there is grace and openness to grace that are needed for these decisions to be sustained.
June 29, 2010 at 3:06 pm
I don't know that I'd call faith a decision, which necessitates affectivity and will, since it's an intellectual virtue at its most basic level. This is why Aquinas distinguishes between formed and unformed faith. Formed faith includes charity, unformed does not. Formed faith becomes unformed through mortal sin.
June 29, 2010 at 5:37 pm
Patrick – you're batting 1000 here. Even before reading your name at the closure I'm getting to the point where I can recgonize your posts and views here.
As for the SCOTUS, I have long suspected he is also an atheist. He can admit to being a pot smoker, a cocaine user and any host of other criminal acts. But even in our current climate, a president just can NOT admit to being an atheist. For me, the giveaway was when everyone was tearing out their hair and rending their garments saying he was a Muslim. I knew from his statements and actions he absolutely was not. Then when everyone was incensed with his brand of Christianity (i.e. the Rev Wright's church) I knew he most likely had only chosen this church because it was heavy on community ties, but light (see: 0) on dogma.
I think this is one of those infinitessibly rare ocassions that we both agree with Christopher Hitchens on this one.
June 29, 2010 at 7:20 pm
I like the direct translation of faith: trust. There is decision in trust, there is feeling in trust, there is reason in trust, there is instinct in trust, there is emotion in trust. As such, there are many ways into faith, many aspects of faith to build on and grow with.
June 29, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The atheist, professing him/herself to be wise,they become fools. April 1st is their High Holy Day.
June 30, 2010 at 3:48 am
While I can see what you are saying I disagree with your conclusion. Love should not be solely about the decision or solely about the feeling but rather a mixture of both.
I do agree with your statement that faith is a decision however, and not everyone makes the same choice.
"The atheist, professing him/herself to be wise,they become fools. April 1st is their High Holy Day. "
That is a value judgement, not to mention absurd. Faith is hardly 'evidence' either. You can't prove that God exists just as much as an atheist can't prove that he doesn't!
June 30, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Someone with more theological knowledge than I will correct me I hope, but isn't faith BOTH a choice and also simultaneously a gift from God? He gives it to those of us who ask for it with a sincere heart in some what or other. We seek first and then we find. The seeking is the decision part to have faith. The finding part is God's help through the grace of the Holy Spirit to have that faith and to sustain it.
Also: is it possible to have faith without love? I don't think so. But maybe a theologian-type will set me straight on this stuff?
Lastly, love is always a decision. There may OR MAY NOT BE a "feeling" with it. Of this I am sure. Because love is really a choice to sacrifice for the good of another.
Think of Mother Teresa, of St. John of the Cross and of Mother Angelica. During times when their faith was shaken or arid, they persisted (and still persist in M. Angelica's case) in the decision to love. Mother Teresa did not FEEL that love in return, yet she loved anyway… happens all the time.