Carrying Water on Both Shoulders

Lowell Bennion once said:

A thoughtful Latter-day Saint who grows up in his faith and takes it seriously may encounter difficulties as he immerses himself in secular education … When faith and reason meet in [a person’s] life…, something must give; some type of working relationship must be established. … [I]t seems to me that there are three logical models people develop to reconcile their religious faith and their secular studies. …

One position a [person] can take is to hold fast to his faith and let no knowledge or experience gained in study disturb it. Religion becomes his standard and only that knowledge which does not disturb his religious views is considered seriously.

A second position is to give reason reign. … Thus religion tends to be reduced to one object of thought and its importance diminishes as it takes second place to secular studies.

A third position is to choose to live in both worlds, to keep faith, as it were, with both one’s religious commitments and with the ways of learning in the academic world.

Bennion acknowledged that “[t]hese models … are abstract constructs of the mind,” and “[i]n real life, an individual does not follow any one of them totally or consistently, but borrows elements of all.” Still, I find his models useful for clarifying what the possible approaches are.

I’ve been thinking about (ponderizing?) Bennion’s third model, which he called “carrying water on both shoulders.” This is the model that appeals most to me, because I feel as Bennion did: “I am committed both to religious faith and idealism and to the best critical thinking of men. … [E]ach has greatly enriched my life. I can deny neither at this point.”

It seems to me that someone who carries water on both shoulders has at least the following four characteristics:

(1)    She is willing to seriously examine her religious beliefs — In the movie The Matrix, the main character Neo is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill. The blue pill would allow him to remain in the fabricated reality of the Matrix, where he would be able to “believe whatever [he] want[s] to believe.” In contrast, the red pill would lead to his escape from the Matrix and into the real world, therefore living the “truth of reality” even though it is a harsher, more difficult life. Neo, the hero in the movie, chooses the red pill.

One who carries water on both shoulders is like Neo, in that she also would choose the red pill. In other words, she doesn’t refrain from examining her religious beliefs out of fear for what she will find. She believes, as Lowell Bennion did, that “a faith that cannot withstand and transcend the light of reason, is not a faith worth keeping.”

(2)    She is committed to keeping her religious beliefs in conversation with science and scholarship — One who carries water on both shoulders takes the scientific or scholarly consensus on a particular issue seriously — especially when that consensus hasn’t changed for a very long time.

This does not mean that she discards her religious beliefs at the first sign of tension with secular thought — that would be Bennion’s second model (“give reason reign”). And she is careful to distinguish between genuine scientific knowledge and metaphysical speculations that claim the authority of science.

On the other hand, she recognizes that scientific analysis and critical thinking have demonstrated that some things that have been taught in the name of religion are clearly not viable: the Earth is almost certainly not just 6,000 years old, human beings are almost certainly not all descendants of a first couple (Adam and Eve), the Pentateuch was almost certainly not written by one man (Moses) living in the second millennium BC, etc.

(3)    She sees doubts and uncertainties that arise from serious investigation as opportunities for spiritual growth — Serious reflection about one’s religious faith can sometimes lead to doubts and uncertainties. Many religious people consider such doubts and uncertainties to be undesirable, or even sinful. They are often told (implicitly or explicitly) that they need to overcome their doubts and uncertainties by praying and reading the scriptures more, going to the temple more, etc.

But one who carries water on both shoulders doesn’t view all doubts and uncertainties as problems that need to be overcome; rather, she is willing to consider the possibility that her doubts and uncertainties — particularly those that result from serious reflection on her faith — may be opportunities for spiritual growth.

She remembers the many occasions in the history of religion (including the history of the LDS Church) when doubting a religious authority would have been the right thing to do — during the Mountain Meadows Massacre, for example, or when LDS leaders taught that black people were not valiant in the pre-mortal existence, or when LDS leaders taught that the Catholic church was the “church of the devil,” etc.  

Michelangelo saw his sculpturing as eliminating marble to reveal the statue within. In a similar vein, one who carries water on both shoulders sees her doubts and uncertainties as a way to eliminate erroneous beliefs and thereby find the core of truth within her faith.

(4)    Her faith includes high levels of fiducia and fidelitas (and minimal assensus) — Richard Niebuhr described three primary meanings of faith in Christian history: assensus, fidelitas and fiducia.

Assensus means giving mental assent that a certain proposition is true.

Fiducia is our trust in God — trust that ultimate reality is nourishing and life-affirming. The opposite of fiducia is anxiety.

Fidelitas means faithfulness to our relationship with God, our loyalty and allegiance. It represents the commitment of the self at our deepest level. The opposite of fidelitas would be idolatry or giving of one’s ultimate loyalty to something other than God (e.g., money, fame).

I believe that the faith of a person who carries water on both shoulders consists primarily of fiducia and fidelitas, with assensus playing a lesser role.

I am not saying that faith in God can be completely devoid of assensus. In order to have faith in God, it seems to me that a person must at least give mental assent that there is a God (or at least that there could possibly be a God).    

However, one who carries water on both shoulders believes that it is probably unwise to tie our religious faith to a lengthy, detailed list of specific propositions about God — or propositions about how God acts (or has acted) in the world. Instead, I believe the faith of a person who carries water on both shoulders includes sufficient fiducia (trust) so that she is willing to, as Peter Enns has said, “hold [her] narratives with an open hand and let God rewrite them when necessary.”