Remember the phrase, “There are no dumb questions?” When we were kids teachers, parents, church workers, tutors, coaches, etc. wanted us to ask questions. Emphasis was put on the “no dumb” in the phrase above which means that the “there are questions” part of the phrase above was essentially a given. So, maybe a better way to go about making such a statement would be, “There are questions. None of them are dumb.”

Where did that line of thinking go? Why do so many who work with youth get spooked when students ask questions or express doubt? We’ve been telling students, ‘there are questions’ and ‘there are no dumb ones’ then when they have questions about faith issues many feel like they need to suppress those questions in favor of a more certain method of making known – absolute condescension. Meaning, some holding to an anti-doubt way of learning faith hold the key to all wisdom and meaning and therefore why would anyone doubt? After all, THE answer is this, that or the other thing. There is no doubt about it. “So why all the questions?”, some ask.

A few weeks ago I was invited to sit on a roundtable of sorts at a local Christian school here in the greater Chicago area. I didn’t want to go as I those types of arrangements usually make me more frustrated than is good for my spirituality. I said yes, however, because I had some connections with some of the other panel participants.

As I suspected, the ‘moderator’ had an agenda. The questions asked were not to spark conversation and healthy debate. Rather the questions put forth were to prove the moderator’s point – that the ‘lack of faith obviously visible’ in their students was a direct result of the many years that the school of allowed students to ‘question their faith’ and therefore, the students weren’t taking faith seriously. Needless to say, I stopped getting questions a few minutes into the conversation.

Doubt is good and so is dancing with it. Guiding our students in the process of their own belief is imperative to their ongoing spiritual development. It is imperative because in some way, shape or form doubt will always exist. Even something as simple and real as doubting oneself does indeed doubt faith, no? If we doubt elements of and within our stories, we doubt faith.

I realize that for many of you allowing students to doubt what I am talking about is not necessarily dangerous. I contend, however, that many of the parents of the students you work with most likely don’t feel the same way you do about faith and doubt. On a similar note, perhaps it might be a healthy exercise for you to measure how your volunteers feel about allowing students to express doubt. Oh yeah, and allowing students to doubt and allowing students to express their doubt are not the same thing. Most people who work with youth are okay or at least semi-okay with an internal conversation of doubt. However, when it is expressed verbally to the entirety of a group, it creates an often-unwanted environmental dynamic. A dynamic that encourages doubt to surface and can sometimes lead others to doubt upon a topic they haven’t yet doubted upon. Some of us just avoid the topic of doubt altogether knowing it isn’t always explainable and never controllable.

Dancing with doubt provides our students with an opportunity to…

…see God reveal himself in bigger ways than humanity can even imagine
… grow beyond the doubt; only to doubt something else
… joyfully cling to what is hopeful not to what is joyously hopeless
… establish a rhythmical critical thinking process that can lead to experiencing God more fully
…guide others toward and through the same doubt(s)
… trust God and others in immeasurable ways
… become more aware of the difference between confidence in things and trust in God
… experience the peace that comes through trust as along with the anxiety that comes with doubt; learning to experience them simultaneously
… listen to and learn from the authentic faith of others
… let failures in life be as significant as successes knowing that failure can lead to doubt and doubt can ultimately lead to more trust
…continue or begin serving others even when their faith isn’t all ‘worked out’
… see the world for what it is—a broken, messy, conglomerate of endless questions about what’s real – and in due course what’s restorable
…avoid the cynicism of those to whom doubt is wrong and inappropriate
…be patient with their peers who may struggle with the claims of God’s story

“Doubt is probably a permanent feature of the Christian life. It’s like some kind of spiritual
growing pain. Sometimes it recedes into the background; at other times it comes to the forefront, making its presence felt with a vengeance.” Alister McGrath, Doubting: Growing Through the Uncertainties of Faith

Check out Doug Jones’ post over at Perigrinatio HERE.