The Question of Faith

Rev. Dr. DeWayne L. Davis

This Week at Plymouth, July 12, 2024

The question of faith—which is ultimately separable from the question of “religion”—is the single most important question that any person asks in and of her life, and that every life is an answer to this question, whether she has addressed it consciously or not.

—Christian Wiman, Zero at the Bone

During this election season, as concerns about the future of our democracy, horse-race pontificating, and ascendant Christian nationalism overwhelm the news and social media outlets and exacerbate anxiety and cynicism, I’ve been struggling to imagine what constructive role faith can play in the restoration of our democracy or, in the least, inspire a renewed trust in the promise of our democracy. I don’t have in mind the current caricature of faith displayed in the media or the imposed kind of faith in organized religion that sometimes stifles compassion and imagination. But a faith that is, as the author Christian Wiman describes, “a provocation to a life I never seem to live up to.” I’m not talking about deep, firm, or unshakable faith, but an aspirational faith that responds to the current climate, not in fear, anger, or despair, but with trustful imagination in God, good, or human nature.

Why do I assume that faith is the answer to the challenges facing our politics and democracy? Is it because my ministerial calling compels me to view these issues through the lens of faith? Or is it because I’ve seen people of faith, the activists and organizers who have courageously championed justice and beloved community, demonstrate that faith can transcend politics, ideology, and ambition? But the question of faith that we must answer goes beyond religion. There is a faith that fires the will to do better, be better, and know better, sometimes without religion. In the struggle to protect and secure our democracy, what is art or action without the fire of faith?

So far, I’ve tried to talk about faith in a nonsectarian, nontheistic way, referencing God in a way that doesn’t prescribe a doctrinal conception of faith. Perhaps before we can constructively engage the weaknesses and failures of our democracy, individually and collectively, we will have to confront the question of faith—what do we believe about ourselves, human nature, and the demos? I am a product of an aspirational faith in the Black religious tradition that kept hope alive for people experiencing racist oppression and domination. I recall hearing the older saints in the church of my youth singing, “Faith, faith, faith, just a little faith. You don’t need a whole lot; just use what you got.” Our faith was vindicated by seeing that God can work in and through us in our time of struggle, giving us new hope, new purpose, and new beginnings. Equipped with faith, we discovered that we could turn our failures into success; our barrenness could be transformed into fruitfulness; our scarcity could become abundance with God on our side. Hallelujah!