{"id":1513,"date":"2013-03-24T17:41:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-24T17:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/03\/the-spiritual-but-not-religious-backlash.html"},"modified":"2013-03-24T17:41:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-24T17:41:00","slug":"the-spiritual-but-not-religious-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/03\/the-spiritual-but-not-religious-backlash.html","title":{"rendered":"The “Spiritual But Not Religious” Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

For a long time, American religion has been attempting to grapple in one way or another with the category of religion that usually falls under the heading of \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d (SBNR). I can remember hearing Jim Wallis speak on a number of occasions and refer to it as \u201cAmerica\u2019s fastest growing religion.\u201d As an identifier, it seems to represent the point of view of someone who recognizes the value of religious sentiment, and perhaps a belief in some transcendent reality, but refuses to believe that such a reality is well-represented \u00a0by any one religious tradition, or indeed, any religious tradition at all, in a satisfactory way. The spiritual but not religious person often seems to be the sort that would\u00a0like<\/em>\u00a0to be religious, if it weren\u2019t for the way relgions and religious people so often act.<\/span><\/div>\n
And among more or less liberal religious folks, this has been widely accepted as a legitimate stance. Sure, among ourselves we may comment about the problems of individualistic religion, lack of community or accountability, and the subjectivism and narcissism that are risked by such a stance. We may make reference to what sociologist Robert Bellah referred to as \u201cShiela-ism\u201d \u2014 the quintessentially American religion that is shared with no one but ourselves. But at the same time, we have not, generally, gone out of our way to pick fights on this front.<\/span><\/div>\n
Until recently that is.<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a long time, American religion has been attempting to grapple in one way or another with the category of religion that usually falls under the heading of \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d (SBNR). I can remember hearing Jim Wallis speak on a number of occasions and refer to it as \u201cAmerica\u2019s fastest growing religion.\u201d As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe "Spiritual But Not Religious" Backlash<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For a long time, American religion has been attempting to grapple in one way or another with the category of religion that usually falls under the heading\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/03\/the-spiritual-but-not-religious-backlash.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The "Spiritual But Not Religious" Backlash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For a long time, American religion has been attempting to grapple in one way or another with the category of religion that usually falls under the heading\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/03\/the-spiritual-but-not-religious-backlash.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-24T17:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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