Over the course of Christian history, faith has come to mean many things:
1. Loyalty to God, based on God's prior loyalty to us.
2. Confidence that God is trustworthy in truth and love.
3. Dependence on the Father of Jesus Christ, who is the source of all good things.
4. Commitment to direct thought and action in accordance with the divine word.
5. Affirmation that certain events and declarations as given by divine revelation are a reliable index of the divine will.
We question these traditional definitions of faith, and wish to suggest our own, which reflect the reality of our own lives.
1. Loyalty to our circle of friends and lovers, firebrands, dropouts and drug-dealers, who are there for us when we need them.
2. Confidence in our own ability to make a happy life together, without assistance from above.
3. The interdependence of ourselves, our community, our environment.
4. Commitment to direct thought and action in the struggle to wrest control of our own lives from the rigid capitalist bullshit that we find all around us.
5. Affirmation that our own skeptical, cynical, critical faculties are the best and only lights we have; and as fallible as we are, we must have faith in ourselves.
ROX redefined the crucial concept of faith in episode #40.
