Carrying On: Hoyas, you gotta question faith

When I was 14 my maternal grandmother, a devout Catholic, forbade me from reading The Da Vinci Code. She told me that the novel’s plot suggested an alternative history of Catholicism that would lead me to question my faith and leave the Church. Against her wishes, I read the book and later left the Church, though for reasons unrelated to Dan Brown’s work of inaccurate fiction.

My grandmother’s view that faith should not be questioned struck me. Particularly for Evangelicals, questioning faith and the verity of the Bible are considered heretical. There is no room for those who have doubts about Jesus and the Christian doctrine. The blindness of this faith is proliferated through their sermons.

Conversely, there are people like my paternal grandfather, a Presbyterian minister who believes that questioning your faith is the most important thing that you can do. He points to verses such as James 1:3 that states, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” They point to others who have had their faiths tested, like Moses, and how they overcame the doubt associated with these tests and grew stronger in their beliefs.

For most, a test of faith can be watching a loved one die too young or injustice befall the helpless, but more often than not a test of faith is as simple as a discussion. It’s as simple as having someone make a comment that intellectually challenges the basis of all of your beliefs. It’s a discussion in a dorm room at four in the morning that makes you wonder if maybe you don’t understand your faith as well as you thought that you did.

Georgetown, as a Catholic university, does invite discussions of faith but they’re all too often dichotomous: liberal Catholics versus conservative Catholics. These two groups rarely have a constructive dialogue, whether it concerns access to birth control or gay marriage. Instead, they throw punches through social media and, sometimes, campus media.

Divisions are heightened by the fact that the University tends to automatically side with more conservative groups, such as Catholic Daughters and Knights of Columbus, because their stances adhere to the Catholic doctrine of the University. This automatically puts the two groups on different playing fields, and doesn’t help facilitate discussions between them.

These discussions are key not only as an intellectual exercise but also as a matter of faith. Both the more liberal and more conservative members of the Georgetown community would be served by having discussions about these issues. It is unlikely that either would truly have a moment of epiphany and change their views, but it is important nonetheless that both sides test their own conceptions of faith by thinking critically about their positions. Now, I’m not suggesting that any of these students have not thought critically about their beliefs, but a more public dialogue would not only benefit the two disparate sides but also the community at large. As the University’s Catholicism is being challenged in Vatican courts, it’s important that Catholic students also reflect on their own faiths.

Beyond the University’s issues, Pope Francis has opened the door for more intellectual contemplation on faith. In an interview last month he said, “The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties.” His leadership guides Catholics by pushing them to think about not only their beliefs, but also the dogma of the Church as a whole.

We are taught every day at Georgetown to challenge our preconceptions and assumptions as they pertain to academics. But we should also be encouraged to challenge our beliefs, to push against what has been ingrained in us from birth. We should cultivate a culture that brings together groups of disparate thoughts and understandings on religion and foster a conversation. These conversations exist for other issues, but are strangely absent when it comes to faith. As Presbyterian theologian Frederick Buechner said, “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” It’s time that Georgetown Catholics, of both liberal and conservative persuasions, keep their faith moving by sitting down and listening to each other.