RELIGION & SOCIETY
The promise and perils of talking about God in public

From the White House to the waffle house, people talk about God. The role of religious groups, issues and voters in the recent election shows the importance people place on God and God's will in this country. Yet while religions encourage believers to communicate with God through prayer and meditation, hearing back from God - and talking about it in public - is a touchy subject.

Some listen for the "still, small voice" that Elijah heard in the Bible. The Quakers seek God in silence. Some believers say they feel God's guidance through people and events in their lives. Others perceive God through faithfulness to the laws or rituals of their tradition. And some people claim to literally hear the voice of God.

Questions arise when people publicly explain their actions as being directed by God. Is it true? How do we judge? Such claims are confusing when different groups say God is guiding them to do opposing things. And it gets downright scary when people claim God is directing them to do things that harm or exploit others.

Most faith traditions have ways communities or leaders evaluate people's sense of God's direction in their lives. But how should society respond when private devotions lead to public actions that affect others?

Why it matters
At a time when many issues in America are tied to religion and treatment of "neighbor," large numbers of people and groups say they are seeking, through their public actions, to be faithful to what they believe is God's will.

Questions for reporters
• How do people experience the voice of God?
• How do people of different faith backgrounds understand the idea of the voice of God?
• If someone believes God is speaking to them, how can they express that without arousing suspicion, fear and ridicule?
• What practices do faith communities engage in to test whether something is actually God's will or not?
• How do religious leaders suggest that members - and society at large - deal with people's sense of God's direction, when different people sense different and opposing things?
• How do people distinguish between random thoughts and direction from God?
• Can talking about the way they understand and experience the voice of God build bridges between people of different faiths?

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National sources

• Dallas Willard is a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and author of Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship With God (InterVarsity Press, 1999). He says speaking about hearing from God is a fundamental American right, but using it to authenticate one's actions is not. Contact 818-716-0652, dwillard@usc.edu.
• Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is the author of many books, including The River of Light: Jewish Mystical Awareness (Jewish Lights, 2000). He says many Jews believe that because God is infinite, his word, as it exists in scripture, must also be infinite. Therefore, scripture - the voice of God - is "infinitely interpretable." He is rabbi at Temple Emmanuel, a Reform congregation, in San Francisco, Calif. Contact 415-751-2541 ext. 148, kushner@sbcglobal.net.
• Stephen Eugene Parker is an associate professor of psychology and counseling at Regent University, a Pentecostal Christian university in Virginia Beach, Va. He has written about Pentecostal Christians, discernment and decision-making. Contact 757-226-4293, steppar@regent.edu.
• Marsha D. Holliday is a member of Langley Hill Friends Meeting in McLean, Va. She has written of the "still, small voice" of God that Quakers wait to hear. Contact hollidaymsd@aol.com.
• Neil Gillman is a Conservative rabbi and professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. He is the author of The Way Into Encountering God in Judaism (Jewish Lights, 2004). He says he is not sure people today really do hear from God. Contact 212-678-8047, negillman@jtsa.edu.
• M. Cathleen Kaveny is a professor of law and theology at Notre Dame University, in Notre Dame, Ind. She can discuss the ethical side of the Catholic understanding of the voice of God. She says Catholics do not generally think of the voice of God as something they literally hear, but approach it from how they can discern the voice of God through human reasoning, natural law, common sense and prudence. Contact 574-631-7844, m.cathleen.kaveny.1@nd.edu.
• Lawrence S. Cunningham is a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. He has written about Catholic mystics and theologians and can address the more mystical side of how Catholics understand the idea of communication from God. Contact 574-631-7137, lawrence.s.cunningham.1@nd.edu.
• Marcia K. Hermansen is a professor of theology at Loyola University, a Jesuit university in Chicago, and co-editor and co-author of Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World (MacMillan, 2003). She can discuss the Sufi Muslim concept of the voice of God. Contact 773-508-2345, mherman@luc.edu.
• Donald W. Mitchell is a professor of philosophy at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and author of Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience (Oxford University Press, 2002). He can address how Buddhists understand the voice of God and how it is different from and the same as that of followers of other faiths. Contact 765-494-4281, dmitch@purdue.edu.
• Raymond F. Pendleton is a professor of pastoral psychology and director of mentored ministry and the clinical counseling program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. He leads a year-round school of prayer at the 2,500-member Grace Chapel, an evangelical nondenominational church in Lexington, Mass. He says people hear from God in a variety of ways - through Scripture and each other. But he is not sure there is really any way believers can discuss what they hear with nonbelievers because their frameworks for understanding are too different from each other. Contact via Anne Doll, director of public relations, 978-646-4141 or 978-884-1116, adoll@gcts.edu.
• John Lind is president and CEO of the Presidential Prayer Team, a nonpartisan Christian organization made up of 3 million Americans who have pledged to pray daily for the president, other American leaders and the country. He says that God speaks through Scripture and through other people in our lives and that God's "voice" will never contradict Scripture. Lind lives in Scottsdale, Ariz. Contact via Karen Randau, communications director, 928-474-9378, karen@presidentialprayerteam.org.
• Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest and author of When God is Silent (Cloister Books, 1998), which explores preachers' challenge of preaching God's word in a world where God so often seems silent. She is a professor of religion and philosophy at Piedmont College in Demorest, Ga. Contact 706-778-1140, btaylor@piedmont.edu.
• Ole Anthony is founder of the Trinity Foundation, a ministry in Dallas whose work includes investigating fraud among televangelists. Anthony can talk about the dangers of people who claim their actions are what God is telling them to do. Contact 214-827-2625.
• Liz Budd Ellmann is executive director of Spiritual Directors International, which networks spiritual directors as they try to help people deepen their relationship with God. She is based in Bellevue, Wash. Contact 425-455-1565, liz@sdiworld.org.
• Kyriacos C. Markides is a professor of religion at the University of Maine in Orono. He specializes in Christian and Eastern Orthodox mysticism. He wrote the book Riding With the Lion: In Search of Mystical Christianity (Penguin USA, 1996). Contact 207-581-2390, markides@maine.edu.
• Dr. Harold Koenig is co-director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and author of numerous books about the relationship between religion and health. He can discuss the relationship between mental health and spirituality. Contact 919-681-6633, Koenig@geri.duke.edu.
• Mark Galli is a managing editor of Christianity Today and the author of The Idiot's Guide to Prayer (Alpha Books, 2006). He says many people feel they have no right to talk to God. Contact mgalli@gallinet.net.

Background

• Read a February 2004 editorial by CBS' 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney on hearing the voice of God.