Who do you believe?

Diana Butler Bass raised the interesting question in her book Christianity after Religion that this is possibly the most important question, rather than "What do you believe?" or even "Why do you believe?"

As she points out, who you believe is important, because it is about "where do you go to find truth? What sources do you hold to provide valid answers to your questions?"

The answer for most people is Google, of course.

The answers have changed over the last 60 years. It used to be that people like clergy, doctors and bank manager were respected members of the society, and people would go to them for spiritual or lifestyle guidance, medical and well-being advice and financial and economic advice. This has all changed. These days, people go to Google for financial advice, alongside personal financial advisers. The idea of going to a bank manager and asking for advice, and expecting it to be the best advice for you is laughable - not least, because the chances of getting a meeting with a bank manager are very remote.

So often, medical advice is being challenged these days, again with the internet being used to research symptoms and treatments. On the whole, medical professionals are still consulted, just with far more information, and a discussion is more likely than just being told what to do.

Overall, this is a positive development. Not always, and there are problems, but overall, this is providing more information to people, and allowing people to discuss with professionals, being able to understand them, and challenge them. Overall, in the majority of cases, this means that people can tailor advice and suggestions to themselves and their own needs.

But what about spirituality matters? Actually, the same applies, possibly even more. Most people don't go to the clergy for spiritual advice, or for lifestyle advice. If they do, there is a good chance that they will have looked up the person on Google to find out something about them beforehand.

The point is that if people use Google to search for answers to spiritual questions, then that is the place that we should be to try to explain what we believe. Of course, it is not just Google - twitter, facebook, whatever, these places should be where the discussion of spiritual truth should be happening.

In a work environment, there is a different approach. "Who do I trust?" will often be answered as "Fred over there." Because the personal is actually becoming more significant, oddly enough. If I know Fred, then I know what I trust him on, what I don't trust him on, and what he talks rubbish on.

So the challenge here is to be trustworthy people.The challenge here is to actually have a clue what we think, what we believe, and be prepared to discuss it. It is about engagement with others, and being a person that others can trust. But not trust that we have answers, it is about being people who can be trusted to have a useful and productive discussion with.

For many people, this is what they are actually after - proper discussion and exploration. And knowing Who You Can Believe. Because, if I am honest, many Christians are not people I believe.