December | 2023 | Dave Soucie

6 For to us a child is born,

Beginning life humble. Simple. One of us. Sharing our experiences.

To us a son is given,

While the only begotten, will set the standard for all who chose to be adopted into the family of God, grateful children of a gracious Father

And the government will be on his shoulders.

He will guide those willing to be led, and be the final authority at the end of time

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,

Providing tender wise counsel to all who accept and cherish his love for us

Mighty God,

While all powerful, shows compassion with those who trust him, and those who insult.

Everlasting Father,

Who always offers inspiring encouragement, wise counsel, restrained protection, while modeling all the qualities we need to be at our best.

Prince of Peace.

Peace before his presence. Peace within our hearts. Peace with all others.

7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.

In time every knee will bow, peace will reign, until the end of time and beyond

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,

Divine dynasty. Benevolent rule. Peace.

Establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness

That all can trust. Rooted in grace. Expressed in love.

From that time on and forever.

Not subject to shifting fickle fashion. Not capable of being replaced. Steady. Dependable. Everlasting.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Not by random chance. Not by human effort. But by the sovereign power of an almighty God whose realm will reign forever.

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Dave Soucie lives, serves and writes in Indianapolis.

I don’t know if the deception is intentional or not. The cynical part of me says yes. When I try to be more charitable, then the deception may be because of ignorance, or incompetence, or being apathetic to the fuller story.

We’ve all heard of the reports that there are a growing number of people who identify as a religious “None.” It implies that they have no faith at all. But that’s rarely true.

A Pew Forum On Religious And Public Life study indicates that three out of four people who self-identify as a None believe in a God or a higher power. So, what does None really mean?

It could mean that they don’t identify with a specific faith group, so the respondent thinks None is sufficient. They may see themselves as a Christian, but not Baptist or Catholic or Methodist etc. They think they are being asked about a denominational identification.

Some may think the question is about whether they belong to a specific congregation. They may be a lifelong Lutheran, but are without a current church, and therefore say None.

You may think I’m exaggerating. But I’m a hospital chaplain and I see this all the time. I’ll routinely see patients listed as a None. After a little diplomatic probing I learn that this is usually wrong.

Occasionally they are truly a None, but they usually have some belief. They may be a Theist, someone who believes there is a God but that is as far as they can go. This is very different than having no faith at all.

I’ve met plenty of patients who told the admissions department they were a certain faith, and they’re still labeled as a None.

There are further complications. The Pew study found that 40% of the people who identified as None reported that they pray. A third have had a religious or mystical experience. So, the surveys that show a certain percentage of the public are None are extremely misleading.

I can believe that its currently more fashionable to claim to not having any form of faith. We’ve seen this off and on throughout history, where because of changing cultural attitudes, some feel more comfortable admitting they are a true None.

There may be those who, in an effort to disparage people of faith, promote the fiction that more and more people are Atheists. That would be a deception that is intentional, a disservice to all.

If it’s not intentional, then it reveals a sloppy methodology that distorts the true picture of religious life. This too is a disservice.

Religious faith is here to stay. It may shift and evolve and be repackaged. But it is an instinctive part of the human experience.

In 1670, Blaise Pascal [French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and writer] described how the need for God is a part of all, even if people don’t recognize it. He wrote how we each have an emptiness deep inside, and that “infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” Pensées VII(425)

Today this is referred to as the “God shaped hole” within each human heart. People fill that hole with something, whether it’s satisfying or not, useful or not, healthy or not.

Even among the true Nones.

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Dave Soucie lives, serves and writes in Indianapolis.

Dave Soucie

Dave Soucie

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Month: December 2023

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The Deception About The “Nones”