Mark Shea has a great column called ‘On "Personal" Faith’
with some excellent insights such as "Personal things are not private; personal things are common."
When I ask what "forcing our beliefs on others" actually means, the reply generally boils down to "Talking about our beliefs in any way." The idea at work behind this notion is that personal means subjective, private, esoteric and inward.
That is exactly how the idea of personal faith has come to be understood. For a Christian this idea is antithetical to the Great Commission"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation." This is what happens when personal faith has been delinked from absolute truth and a subjective faith is not worth the effort of spreading. A personal faith that does not flow out into the common life is no faith at all because you have lost the faith that it is true and worth having.
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I guess it is sort of like this:
“I believe that two plus two equals four, but I don’t want to impose my mathematics on others…”
“I believe that cyanide/toadstools/rattlesnakes are poisonous, but I wouldn’t want to impose my chemistry or biology on others.”
“I believe that even water can be dangerous if inhaled in large quantities, but I would not want to impose my hydraulics on others.”
Ah, Doc beat me to it.
How about:
I am personally opposed to the government restricting my liberty by demanding I stop at red lights.
The McDonald’s fast food line is still not fast enough for me and restricts my liberty and pursuit of happiness. I choose to push in front.
Alas, the world is suffering from the great loss of common sense! The cancer of relativism has deepened the sin of omission and the individual is at risk of making a golden calf out his personal truth.
Never thee worry, fellow pilgrims… we must continue the good fight. Let’s put on the armor -Eucharist, catechism, penance!
Last year at WYD (local, on Palm Sunday), our auxiliary bishop gave a catechisis on faith being personal, but not private.
I think that’s pretty much the key difference.
Of course, people talking constantly about their “personal” political views, and telling me that mine are Wrong, is not “imposing their beliefs”.
And all those hapless wrong-thinking students and government employees hauled off to sensitivity training aren’t having anyone’s beliefs imposed on them, are they?
Let’s see here, how did that go? I my self would never blow up an abortion clinic, but if someone else wants to, who am I to stop them.?
(as long as no one is inside, and you have a good get away……..)
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