Our panel gathered together remotely to talk about doubt and how we might walk alongside students in our schools or classrooms who are wrestling with doubts related to their faith. I opened the dialogue by inviting the panelists to share examples from their classrooms or perspectives they have gained from working with students who are dealing with doubt.
Christian: The first thing I would say and have said to students is that we’ve all experienced doubt, and while it might be scary, especially if it’s something that is a relatively new feeling, it is normal. I know that as students get older they start to question some of the stories that they’ve heard in the past, or maybe they start to encounter questions that they don’t necessarily think they have a ready answer for. It is important to let them know that that feeling, although it’s unsettling, is not bad in and of itself. It’s something that obviously needs to be dealt with, but it’s not something that they are uniquely feeling; it’s something that everybody goes through in some way or another.
So the classic “you are not alone” is something that is important to say.
Gayle: I think that not only is it not unexpected, but I would actually encourage them to think about it as something that is good. Just as I was preparing for this I remembered a quote by Anne Lamott. She writes, “The opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty” (256–57). And I’ve been wrestling with that. Somebody else said “certainty and control.” But just the idea that it’s not only to be expected but it’s actually good because it shows that you are thinking deeply, and if everything is certain it’s probably not faith—it’s something else. I would encourage them, actually, to be willing to step into those places where it’s a little bit challenging and disconcerting because it shows that they are taking it seriously and that they’re moving from assumptions and all sorts of other things to actual faith.
Justin: I think some of the shifts that are happening in education generally are paving the way for us to do so much better on this issue of faith formation and doubt. Consider some contemporary educational buzz words: the shift from content to competencies; a shift from close questioning and single-answer responses to inquiry and open-ended questioning; a desire for authenticity in pedagogy generally. So I think this is an area where some of what’s happening among us in education is paving the way for us to have much more authentic dialogue with students, not just about learning generally but about faith formation as a thread within that.
Christian: Yes, to follow up with that, I think there’s more permission in our Christian school culture to be asking these kinds of questions; whereas, in my own experience as a student in Christian education, I never felt comfortable questioning anything. I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and my dad was a pastor, and I had all of these questions and doubts, but I felt like it was an illegal place to go. It’s definitely a different experience on the other side of the desk for me now. It is a much freer climate. But having said that, there’s also a lot more danger involved because I think there are more challenges for our students as believers in our culture now. So while doubt is normal, and it shouldn’t be too frightening, we do need to get our students to a position of some kind of strength so they can deal with some of the stuff that is thrown at them. It’s hard for somebody who is doubting to fight in our culture.
Rebecca: I teach at an elementary school, so my lower elementary students just tell me what their parents think. They don’t necessarily question their own faith yet. But by sixth, seventh, or eighth grade, they start to do that. I have noticed that they’re very hesitant, though, because they go to a Christian school, they go to church, they’ve grown up in Christian homes, and they may feel like they shouldn’t have doubts. I really appreciate what Christian and Gayle said about letting them know that it’s OK, and even good, to ask questions about their faith. But I don’t think we’ve really had great models of teachers or adults who talk about their struggles with faith openly, and maybe we have to have the courage to do that more often. Perhaps that would open up a conversation as well.
Gayle: There’s always that balance as models either in a classroom or family, in terms of doubts that we’ve had. But I think in terms of my own walk: my brother is struggling with terminal cancer, and that raises some doubts for me in terms of what prayer is all about or what God is doing. So this Anne Lamott quote is really interesting. I’ll read the rest of it: “The opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns” (257). So I think that it’s really good for all of us, as adults in the classroom, to recognize that it’s messy and empty and discomforting in places, but that’s OK. It’s part of faith. And then we think about how to lead through that then, how to be an example in the classroom. I know that in my growing up I don’t remember adults talking about those struggles that they went through. Maybe they did, but I don’t remember that. And I think it would have been helpful to me.
John: So now I’m thinking about why kids have doubt. We know that it’s natural and that it’s normal. We understand that. But I am wondering if in your experience you have noticed particular times when students are more likely to experience doubt. Or are there particular classroom topics or events that seem to bring up doubt?
Justin: Have you heard of the document called “Hemorrhaging Faith”? It is a Canadian study that explores why youth are staying in or leaving the church. One highlight was the significance of transitional times in their lives. The transition from grade 8 to grade 9, for instance, is a seminal moment when kids are making powerful choices about who they are and what they believe and what they want to do. The same thing with grade 12 to postsecondary school. The study talked much more about cultural aspects that were impacting faith formation, so a lack of authenticity in the culture they were being raised in led to significant hemorrhaging of the faith. And that makes sense. If there’s not authenticity in their relationships, why would they maintain a relationship with Yahweh? So I’m struck by the idea that the more we can create powerful, authentic connections on a daily level, the more there is the possibility of us experiencing wonder and miracle at a holy, sacred level.
Christian: I think sometimes that when kids are seeing what’s going on in the culture, something we sometimes call “the culture wars,” our students are wondering about which culture-war battles or hills they are going to die on. Now they’re questioning, “Can I still hang on to my Christianity and believe this about the age of the earth or this about same-sex relationships?” There are a whole host of issues that didn’t have to be brought up before because the culture wasn’t bringing them to the foreground. We were let off the hook; but now the climate that our kids live in is much more complex, and they’re having to deal with issues on a day-to-day basis.
Justin: Yes, I think that’s powerful, and I’ll just tie back into Gayle’s use of Anne Lamott’s quote: if we act like certain things are certain, and then all of a sudden life starts to reveal to students that they’re not certain at all, then they’re in a faith crisis in that moment, because the answers we gave might have been inadequate to them in some way. And that war, then, not only becomes a culture war but also an internal battle for identity and clarity.
Gayle: I think that it can be one of these things that expands, too, because I’ve heard way too many stories, we probably all have, of students who have gone through a K–12 Christian school system, and then they go off to a secular university and something happens. They encounter knowledge, people, and perspectives they have never heard before. And I think they wonder why they didn’t know about these things before. And sometimes they think that if their church or community was lying about this, then what else have they been lying about?
John: Part of what I’m hearing, in terms of how we walk alongside students wrestling with doubt, is that we need to prepare them better for those moments that they will confront later. We need to encourage them in many ways to wrestle with their doubts, and maybe even to plant some doubt so they can wrestle with it. That’s part of what I’m hearing.
Justin: Yes, that’s true, and I think that Rebecca is raising a good point about age appropriateness as well. Inquiry in the primary grades is wonder. You know, we want a spirit of awe and wonder, but that’s holy questioning. And it might get a little more philosophical and rhetoric or debate based as we get older and into high school, but there is still that culture of questioning and inquiry that is both awe and rigor at the same time. And, again, authentic, where personal voices are allowed to speak, where we put parameters and protocols in place for there to be safe engagement and dialogue.
Rebecca: And it begins with building positive relationships with our students. Relationships in which they can trust us. Relationships in which we can be honest with them so that they can, in return, be honest with us. So much of teaching, so much of life, begins with the relationships we have with the people around us.
Rebecca: I just want to remind students that our God is a big God who can handle all of our questions, all of our doubts, and all of our wrestlings. He’s not going to shut us down, and he’s not going to go away. We have a God who accepts our doubts and our questions no matter what they are because he loves us so very much.
Works Cited
Dark, David. The Sacredness of Questioning Everything. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009.
Lamott, Anne. Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005.
Christian Altena teaches at Chicago Christian High School in Palos Heights, Illinois.
Justin Cook serves as the director of learning at the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools in Ancaster, Ontario.
Rebecca DeSmith serves as Discovery Program coordinator and teacher at Sioux Center Christian School.
Gayle Monsma serves as the Executive Director for The Prairie Centre for Christian Education in Edmonton, Alberta.
John Walcott is assistant professor in the education department at Calvin College.