{"id":1644,"date":"2016-06-30T10:25:11","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T14:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/gloryseed\/?p=1644"},"modified":"2016-07-04T08:31:42","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T12:31:42","slug":"i-miss-the-religious-but-not-spiritual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/gloryseed\/2016\/06\/i-miss-the-religious-but-not-spiritual\/","title":{"rendered":"I Miss the Religious But Not Spiritual"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/americangallery.wordpress.com\/category\/stevens-peter\/\"<\/a>
https:\/\/americangallery.wordpress.com\/category\/stevens-peter\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I assume you\u2019ve endured, as I have, that self-congratulatory nostrum of the Authentic: \u201cI\u2019m spiritual but not religious\u201d. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Well, it got me thinking. That implies that there is the opposite somewhere out there, someone who is \u201creligious but not spiritual\u201d. Does such a creature even exist?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

They\u2019re hard to find these days, but I can assure that they did exist once upon a time. There were once herds of them, rumbling over the great midwestern plains. But they\u2019ve been hunted to near extinction by the flower-children of Authenticity.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m here to tell you that I miss them.<\/p>\n

They had their faults, but you know those already. The flower-children of Authenticity have so infused your mind with their psychedelic mind-altering drugs that your ability to see anything but their faults has gone blurry.<\/p>\n

But if I had to choose between the \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d<\/em> and the \u201creligious but not spiritual\u201d<\/em>\u2013if those were the only choices I had\u2013well, I\u2019d go with the \u201creligious but not spiritual\u201d<\/em> nine times out of ten.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what they looked like:<\/span><\/p>\n

These people had what some today dismissively call \u201ccivil religion\u201d<\/em>. They came to church for the high holy days, and they were there for church picnics too. They expected their children to go to church, and sometimes they even took them. They were there for baptisms, funerals, and weddings, of course. But they also defended religious institutions in public. They could even get weepy singing Amazing Grace. And if someone defiled a church in someway, or just insulted it, they might even be the most visibly outraged.<\/p>\n

What did these people know in their bones that we have forgotten?\u00a0Here is a short list.<\/p>\n

Religion gets us out of ourselves<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d<\/em> people are really into is themselves<\/span>. They howl in protest at that, but the very dichotomy they\u2019ve created between spirituality and religion demonstrates this. Religion is \u201cjust rules\u201d, i.e. an external code of behavior. Spirituality is good because it wells up from within. Another name for this is solipsism. Yet another name is Sheilaism.<\/a>\u00a0You could say that the \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d<\/em> don\u2019t really get rid of religion, they actually multiply it. Now everyone is his own guru with a following of one.<\/p>\n

Religion has a social purpose<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Religions bind communities together with rituals and symbols that remain meaningful whether or not you get their meanings, or even believe in them very much. The \u201creligious but not spiritual\u201d<\/em> understand and accept this; the \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d<\/em> do not. Bonds can be bad, but they can also serve good purposes. The Latin root of the word \u201creligion\u201d means \u201cto bind\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

Marriage is a bond, any sort of covenant is. Contracts bind people together; friendships do too. Bonds can vary in strength. And we all feel intuitively that we need other people, not just for a feeling of belonging, but also for plain and practical reasons. A religion provides a common script, something that helps people to work together. It is a bond, and it has its uses.<\/p>\n

Hypocrisy isn\u2019t all bad<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another way to put it: Authenticity is overrated. Think about it this way, if someone wants to kill you, would you like him to be true to himself, or be a hypocrite in that moment? I\u2019ll take hypocrisy\u2013doing the right thing for the wrong reason. The great wit, Francois de La Rochefoucauld\u00a0said, \u201cHypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s something else to ponder: do you really believe all those beautiful people actually live up to all that politically correct pap they spout on television? Of course they don\u2019t. But that\u2019s always the way it is. Grow up and get used to it. Sure, we should strive for more. That\u2019s why I only favor the \u201creligious but not spiritual\u201d<\/em> if I have only two options.<\/p>\n

The real ideal is being religious and<\/strong> spiritual<\/span>: having a true religion and living up to it. Such are the angels and the saints. (At a minimum, this is what saints strive to do.)<\/p>\n

But since we live in a fallen world, if I must settle for something short of the ideal, I\u2019ll take the \u201creligious but not spiritual\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I assume you\u2019ve endured, as I have, that self-congratulatory nostrum of the Authentic: \u201cI\u2019m spiritual but not religious\u201d. Well, it got me thinking. That implies that there is the opposite somewhere out there, someone who is \u201creligious but not spiritual\u201d. Does such a creature even exist? They\u2019re hard to find these days, but I can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2522,"featured_media":1649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,37,38,16,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-apologetics","category-happiness","category-social-ethics","category-the-pastors-survival-guide","category-virtue"],"yoast_head":"\nI Miss the Religious But Not Spiritual<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I assume you've endured, as I have, that self-congratulatory nostrum of the Authentic: "I'm spiritual but not religious". Well, it got me thinking. 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