Everybody seems to be spiritual these days - from your college roommate, to the person in the office cubicle next to yours, to the subject of every celebrity interview. But if "spiritual" is fashionable, "religious" is as unfashionable. This is usually expressed as follows: "I'm spiritual but just not religious." It's even referred to by the acronym SBNR.
The thinking goes like this: being "religious" means abiding by arcane rules and hidebound dogmas, and being the tool of an oppressive institution that doesn't allow you to think. Religion is narrowminded and prejudicial--so goes the thinking--stifling the growth of the human spirit. Even worse, as several contemporary authors contend, religion is the most despicable of social evils, responsible for all the wars and conflicts around the world.
Sadly, religion is in fact responsible for many ills in the modern world and evils throughout history: among them the persecution of Jews, endless wars of religion, the Inquisition, not to mention the religious intolerance and zealotry that leads to terrorism. There is a human and sinful side to religion since religions are human organization, and therefore prone to sin. Frankly, people within religious organizations know this better than those outside of them.
Some say that on balance religion is found wanting. But I would stack up against the negatives the positives: traditions of love, forgiveness and charity as well as the more tangible outgrowths of thousands of faith-based organizations that care for the poor and promote social justice. Think of generous men and women like St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Ávila, St. Catherine of Siena, Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.
Speaking of Dr. King, you might add Abolition, women's suffrage, and civil rights movements, all of which were founded on explicitly religious principles. Add to that list the billions of believers who have found in their own religious traditions not only comfort but also a moral voice urging them to live selfless lives and to challenge the status quo.
By the way, atheism doesn't have a perfect record either. In No One Sees God, Michael Novak points out that while many atheist thinkers urge us to question everything, especially the record of organized religion, atheists often fail to question their own record. Think of the cruelty and bloodshed perpetrated, just in the 20th century, by totalitarian regimes that have professed "scientific atheism." Stalinist Russia comes to mind. On balance, I think, religion comes out on top.
Still, it's not surprising that, given all the problems with organized religion, many people would say, "I'm not religious." They say: "I'm serious about living a moral life, maybe even one that centers on God, but I'm my own person."
But there's a problem. While "spiritual" is obviously healthy, "not religious" may be another way of saying that faith is something between you and God. And while faith is a question of you and God, it's not just a question of you and God. Because this would mean that you're relating to God alone. That means that there's no one to suggest when you might be off track.
We all tend to think that we're correct about most things, and spirituality is no exception. Not belonging to a religious community means less of a chance of being challenged by a tradition of belief and experience, less chance to see when you are misguided, seeing only part of the picture, or just wrong.
Consider a person who wants to follow Jesus Christ on her own. Perhaps she has heard that if she follows Christ she will enjoy financial success - a popular idea. Were she part of a mainstream Christian community, though, she would be reminded that suffering is part of the life of even the most devout Christian. Without the wisdom of a community, she may gravitate towards a skewed view of Christianity. Once she falls on hard times financially, she may drop God, who has ceased to meet her personal needs. Despite our best efforts to be spiritual we make mistakes. And when we do, it's helpful to have the wisdom of a religious tradition.
Religion checks my tendency to think that I am the center of the universe, that I have all the answers, that I know better than anyone about God, and that God speaks most clearly through me.
But religious institutions themselves need to be called to account. And here the prophets among us, who are able to see the failures, weaknesses, and plain old sinfulness of institutional religion, play a critical role. Like individuals who are never challenged, religious communities can often get things tragically wrong, convinced that they are doing "God's will." They might even encourage us to become complacent in our judgments. Unreflective religion can sometimes incite people to make even worse mistakes than they would on their own. Thus, prophetic voices calling their communities to continual self-critique are always difficult for the institution to hear, but nonetheless necessary.
It's a necessary tension: the wisdom of our religious traditions provides us with a corrective for our propensity to think that we have all the answers; and prophetic individuals can moderate the natural propensity of institutions to resist change and growth. As with many aspects of the spiritual life, you need to find balance in the tension.
Religion also reflects the social dimension of human nature. Human beings naturally desire to be with one another, and that desire extends to worship. It's natural to want to worship together, to gather with other people who share your desire for God, and to work with others to fulfill the dreams of your community.
Experiencing God also comes through personal interactions within the community. Sure, God communicates through private, personal, intimate moments - as in prayer or reading of sacred texts - but sometimes God enters into relationships with us through others in a faith community. Finding God often happens in the midst of a community - with a "we" as often as an "I." For many people this is a church, a synagogue or a mosque. Or more broadly, religion.
Overall, as Isaac Hecker, the 19th-century founder of the Paulists, a Catholic religious order, said, religion enables you to "correct and connect."
Being spiritual and being religious are both part of being in relationship with God. Neither can be fully realized without the other. Religion without spirituality becomes a dry list of dogmatic statements divorced from the life of the spirit. This is what Jesus warned against. Spirituality without religion can become a self-centered complacency divorced from the wisdom of a community.
That's what I'm warning against.
The Rev. James Martin, a Catholic priest, is culture editor of America.
This essay is excerpted from his new book, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything
An extended version of this essay can be found on Bustedhalo.com
Rev. James Martin, S.J.: Mother Teresa: One of the Greatest Saints Ever
Religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Religious order - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Is it necessary to be a part of a religious community in order to ...
Caught Up in God » Blog Archive » Why Do We Gather? Religious ...
harms others. History tells us that there has been a great deal of harm caused by religious belief.
They rarely love God or the world that he gave us.
If we throw away ideas, whether they be religous or atheist, then what do you have? We all want to cling to something. Atheists cling to mind wars, religious people to wars of judgement, i.e. my religion is better than yours.
So where are the people who love God and his world? and what would they be called?
Anyone know?
kind of agree, kind of disagree. my life goal has been to be spiritual but never religious. i just have one dogma i follow - live and let live as long as i dont harm no body else physically, mentally, or in any way. i believe the 'wisdom of a community' doenst have to come from religious communities, but anywhere, whether i volunteer or go to a good play, life is full of valuable lessons for me. i usually dont think about god or the creator or all that fancy stuff that no one really knows for sure anyway. i try to understand that there are things within my power and without. i do my best for things i can take care of like everyday's my last day. things i can't control myself, i try to stay positive no matter what it is, for that's the best i can do. i don't fear hell or heaven, i think that's a really, stupid, irrational thing to believe in (have you ever seen a good/evil dichotomy in nature??) live and let live, you live once anyway (to our knowledge).
If one feels that the religion they follow has 'arcane rules' or 'is not logical' they are free to leave that religion and follow something else (atheism maybe). But you cannot change religious rules as per your own whims and facies and still call it the same relgion.
I'm not saying that people wouldn't find other reasons to hurt or kill one another, if religion suddenly disappeared, but it is simply another way to segregate ourselves into groups and define the other group as somehow "evil" or undeserving. How can Christians and Muslims (to pick on the two largest of the Abrahamic faiths) possibly come to terms with other groups, including non-believers, when they see all those that don't believe in their faith as doomed to he //? How can they ever see somebody as an equal with an equal right to their beliefs if they see them as eternally damned and denying God? The box these religions have put themselves in limits them to only being able to play lip service to accepting diversity in beliefs. Non-believers are either ignorant and to be converted, or ignorant and a threat, or competitor.
Jesus spoke out against organized religion and lived with the poor on the streets. This is not an example that is being followed by christian churches. Churches cannot make a convincing case for being actual followers of Jesus. They use his name like a brand name. There is no follow through.
"Never has a causal effect been demonstrated by any historian (much less a theist in a debate) between atheism and the actions of, say, Stalin. Stalin ordered the deaths of thousands because he deemed them a threat to his government –a government that was dogmatic and powerful. Indeed, on could easily argue that Stalin’s position was that he “replaced” God and inserted himself as the national deity with statues and portraits in all public (and many private) lands and buildings. Those that carried out his death warrants did so because they believed in Stalin –because they “worshiped” him.
There are no gulags or concentration camps in recorded history that were designed to fulfill a “lack of belief” in something, which is what atheism is. None were constructed to destroy lives out of reason or rational thought, which is what informs the atheistic conclusion."
"Hitler may not have been an atheist, but I am willing to go along with you on this because either way we have a point of agreement here! Commanding genocide is immoral – are you willing to condemn the God of the Old Testament for commanding genocide?
We both agree, the God of the Bible is as immoral as Hitler and Stalin, right?
Or perhaps you want to say that genocide is only ‘sometimes‘ wrong?”
Late at night when I’m alone I fantasize about a ‘community’ where: consenting adults can sleep with and marry whomever they like; where planned parenting is encouraged through the use of artificial contraceptives; where women are afforded all the opportunities offered to men; where world leaders encourage the use of condoms when addressing millions of people who are afflicted with HIV/AIDS; where analytical thought is cherished; where those that choose to pontificate about sexual mores are at least themselves sexual beings; where moral leaders do not live in billion dollar enclaves but rather live in simple, sustainable homes; where children are not sexually abused by anyone including those who allege to be close to God; where children of homosexual parents are not expelled from school supported in part from public money through the use of vouchers, simply because of their parents consensual sexual preferences; where people are valued because they are kind and generous, because they are selfless and discerning and not because they simply belong to a larger group and are obedient; where the concept of an infallible person is considered absurd; where substance is valued over form; where people are valued simply for the ‘integrity of their character’ and the deeds of their actions.
One can live a personally happy,fulfilled and satisfactory life without dependence on a credo established 2000 years ago when a long trip was to the next village and the wheel was barely hi-tech.
The wild animals, which we shoot without mercy are part of the spirituality of this land. And the destruction and injustic perpetuated on American Indian reservations does not reach our local news media.
So when we stop that killing we will have taken one step towards a civilization that can then boast that it is Christian, until then, please become conscious of this.
When and if technology can replace meat producing animals with lab-grown meat I would be the first in line to stop the killing. But PETA's attempts to anthropomorphize animals will never succeed. It is a radical fringe concept. Everybody hates to see a puppy suffer because they have eyebrows and make a sad face. Beyond that animals are a resource...pure and simple, no matter how empathetic you are.
will be no more bombs.
Do you want peace in America?
We cannot have peace as long as we defile God's world, and this is the wildlife and earth that he is given us. It is not possible.
We need to collectively rethink how we love here and there are many groups and people trying to do so. Unfortunately you won't find it in this column of bloggers.
Many nonbelievers, including some apostles were converted - by their own experiences and not by believing in any dogma.
My sisters are born again and more dogmatic and closed minded than any atheists I know. they sound a bit like your atheist family. My Christian friends condmen everyone to hell except their version of Christianity.
I was told by a Mormon follower that only the Mormons are saved.
I had to leave religion to find God. I prayed to God that he find me and he did.
It's actually a bit funny all this.
I think I expressed badly what I was referring to. Please let me try again.
God answers the cry of the heart and he does not care what religion one is or even if one is an atheist. Anyone can read a book and go to church and call themselves religious.
If one cries from the depths of the heart sincerely, at one point an awakening will occur, it will be as simple as a book, or a friend, or a birth of a child, to an angel visiting,
or an apostle visiting, or an ecstatic vision as one friend has. and it has nothing to do with religion and God does not care what religion we are.
some believe God is love, and if we approach God and his world with love, a gentle softness can sometimes be experienced but a receptivity is needed to experience grace.
You said: if I found God, I found religion. For me, it is not religion, but only common sense. to love God and the world he gave us is only common sense.
Atheists can do disagreeable, even evil things. I'm an atheist, and Ayn Rand was an atheist, but that point of commonality doesn't ameliorate my disgust for her ideas. Atheists don't claim moral purity due to their lack of God-fearing, but rather they assert that God cannot exist. Moreover, many are the guardians of science and higher education. Look what the religious are trying to do with the biological sciences, and now, even with American history. What is needed is an emphasis on evidenced-based arguments and knowledge, and if there are points of contention, an honest debate.
impeccable piece of writing and so was the one about the architect, it's name escapes me
And i am not an atheist.
I remember when I was young, and in the wilderness and at that time in my life, having been raised Roman Catholic and finding them so mean and nasty, I remember being in the wilderness and saying to myself: I will love whoever made this. Why do i have to call it God?
I have atheist friends who love their families and the earth and the wildlife and are full of compassion.
I see God everywhere, I see "him/it/her" reflected in trees and in wildlife and in the oceans and in the sunsets and in children and children's laughter. and we see the dark side God in those who are mean and build bombs and destroy.
Religion is divisive by definition. Spirituality, life lived according to informed conscience, creativity and love, is the bedrock of the human/divine relationship.
Not all those who cry "Jesus, Jesus" are people of good will. You will know them by their fruits not their professions of faith.
Ama et fac ut vis.
Pierre Laplace