A couple of years ago, I was at a comedy club in downtown Denver. The comedian made the comment that his friend had "found religion" then gave his opinion that it's great when people find something that works for them, "just keep it to yourself." I'm hoping and praying that this was just a joke (since that's what comedians do). But it did get me thinking. Because of the increasing secularization of society, people are subscribing to the mantra of "keep religion to yourself." In consideration of this, I asked myself a question; is this a reasonable request of Christians? My answer was an immediate and resounding "No." This led to two follow-up questions. First, is this just because of my own bias toward Christianity? Second, why is this an unreasonable request?
The answer to the second follow-up, herein contained, is a commentary on the nature of humanity. As such, I believe that it makes the answer to the first follow-up also "No." I believe that there are a myriad of reasons why the Christian religion cannot be kept to oneself. However, there are five primary and sufficiently compelling reasons that I would like to make special note of.
No. 1. People like to tell stories of personal experience. Almost all of casual conversation consists of people telling stories. Sometimes these stories have significance, sometimes they don't. But the fact remains, people like to tell stories. The statistic is that when someone receives good customer service, they will probably share the experience with an average of five people. If someone receives poor customer service, they will tell nine people. Why? People like to tell stories.
Because of this fact, when people find the Way, the Truth, and the Life, when people are forgiven for every sin they have ever done, when people enter into a relationship that gives them eternal life, because of their human nature, they want to tell people about it.
Of course, along with the "keep religion to yourself" slogan comes the idea that it is impolite to talk religion or politics with your friends. Now, I'm no politician. I know very little of the political sciences so I am not qualified to speak to its validity in casual conversation. However, I fully believe that spirituality is by far the number one most important aspect of human existence without question. In my experience, it seems as though at one point or another, every human faces questions of "who am I?" "what is the meaning of existence?" "why can I comprehend cognitive thought while my dog just smells butts and drinks from the toilette?" and so on. There is very clearly something beyond the purely physical existence. Why would someone choose to never speak of these things with their friends? It is part of human nature to consider these things and it is part of human nature to do so collectively.
No. 2. This one is related to the previous one. When people find truth, meaning, or any positive element in life, they naturally want to share it with those they care about so that they, too, can share in the positive experience. Consider the last really good movie you saw. How many people did you tell to go see this movie? I would guess you spoke of it to at least two people. Why did you do that? Because you had a positive experience and you want your friends to enjoy it as well. When someone finds a relationship with the One who gives life more abundantly, human nature dictates that they have a desire to share this information.
The flip side of the coin is true with negative experiences. When you get stuck in bad traffic, you call your friends and tell them to go another way. That's just how people work. From what I understand, eternal damnation is a negative experience (call me crazy). So it only makes sense that I would warn people to avoid this.
No. 3. Personal belief is inseparably tied to physical response. Our metaphysical minds are tied to our physical bodies like a marionette puppet. When the personal belief moves, the physical body follows. Consider this example: if you were standing by a dark ally and you saw six hefty men walking toward you, your body would respond in a certain manner. We call this the instinct of fear. The heart-rate increases. The body temperature rises slightly. Breathing becomes shallow. However, if you knew that these six men had just come from a Bible study, you would respond in a completely different way. Personal belief is inseparably tied to physical response.
Why do people physically demonstrate and live out their metaphysical beliefs? Because they have no choice. This is human nature. This is what separates us from the animals.
No. 4. In my experience generally pluralists and secularists would not make the same request of other worldviews (i.e. Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, etc.). In western culture, hindering the free speech of groups such as these is severely frowned upon. However, if the words are coming from a Christian perspective, the rules change so that we are asked to keep it to ourselves. The request is unreasonable because it is inconsistent.
There is an even greater problem with the consistency of the request. Statements made of the Christian faith must be viewed as either statements of opinion or statements of fact. If they are viewed as statements of opinion, then a consistent request of this nature would dictate that all statements of opinion should be kept private. (Feel free to save my space by inserting your own ad absurdum argument here.) If the statements are viewed as facts (yeah, like that will happen), there are absolutely no grounds by which one can request that they be kept to oneself. Which leads me to...
No. 5. Asking this of Christians is hypocritical. To put the request in general terms, it is like saying, "It is my opinion that personal opinions should be kept private." By making the request, you are breaking it yourself.
Spiritual privatization is pragmatically impossible because of the nature of humanity. Because of this, I say please don't keep religion to yourself. If you find something good, share it with your friends. If your religious views aren't that good, for God's sake, change them. If you don't know how good they are, run them by someone.
But I would wager that you probably already have. It's just what we do.
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