I was at a meeting last week where the conversation turned to how to attract younger adults to a church event. And someone said young adults were "not religious, but spiritual." Now, I think I have some idea of what she meant, but somehow the comment really bothered me.
Part of it's the buzzword factor. These days "religious" too often equals some combination of "fanatical, boring, straitlaced, excessively pious,and/or narrow-minded," while "spiritual" means one or more of "deep, personally meaningful, good, cool, new age and/or affirming of one's own beliefs.
Another thing that bothered me is the sense that being religious entails following, or at least acknowledging, a lot of boring, restrictive rules: the "thou shalt not's" of Old Testament fame, plus maybe a few more. And then there are the "thou shalt's." Thou shalt share with others through charitable contributions to the church and other organizations; thou shalt treat other people with the kindness and respect you would like to receive, whether or not you actually do receive it. Thou shalt give of thy time to benefit the community. All that religious stuff -- what a pain!
Whereas, if one is spiritual, one may enjoy profound personal experiences without any obligation to anyone. There are no rules governing what you have to do in order to be spiritual, no requirement to care for others or contribute to something larger than yourself.
I don't really think the religious and the spiritual are so opposed: I think in their best expressions the two go together. The experience of Mystery and the ineffable grows out of serving others and, in its turn, supports our efforts to live an ethical life. Religion and spirituality are two sides of the same coin, and it is only when we try to separate them, or hold them opposed to one another, that we reduce them to caricatures. In the process, we reduce our own experience as well.
this is really interesting. i like your point about religion and spirituality being two sides of the same coin. i would go one step further, perhaps, and say that not only does parsing religion and spirituality reduce them to caricatures, it also seems to hold the potential to create space for active disrespect and disregard for other people. when we "other" once, we "other" repeatedly.
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