The "spiritual but not religious" debate

We all know folks who identify as “spiritual but not religious.” Do you have compassion, tolerance and understanding for their spiritual journeys? Or do you find them immature, shallow and a little bit boring?

A few weeks ago, a United Church of Christ minister, the Rev. Lillian Daniel of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, wrote a blog post entitled “Spiritual But Not Religious? Please Stop Boring Me.” In it, she vents about a recent flight during which a “spiritual but not religious” person tried to enlighten her about how he can find God in sunsets.

“Like people who go to church don't see God in the sunset! Like we are these monastic little hermits who never leave the church building. How lucky we are to have these geniuses inform us that God is in nature. As if we don’t hear that in the psalms, the creation stories and throughout our deep tradition.”

As you can tell, her tone is a bit snide and snarky:

“Thank you for sharing, spiritual but not religious sunset person. You are now comfortably in the norm for self-centered American culture, right smack in the bland majority of people who find ancient religions dull but find themselves uniquely fascinating.”

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/spiritual-not-religious-debate

I was just going to comment on today's lovely contrasts.

Like God is in those contrasts you know, he's in the liars that took the surveys, and like the pissy blogs of annoyed theists who can't be bothered to like talk about god appearing in nature, he's in this post, and... I can't keep going with a straight face.

with all of the people she's bored across the years. But I find it unlikely she will.


“Thank you for sharing, spiritual but not religious sunset person. You are now comfortably in the norm for self-centered American culture, right smack in the bland majority of people who find ancient religions dull but find themselves uniquely fascinating.”

Just like every religious proselytizer who thinks they're sharing something new and exciting when they babble breathlessly about their particular religion.

If you know what I mean.

I have never considered myself religious.

She has so much time on her hands that she feels the need to scold others over their beliefs. Last time I check a ministers job is not to be "entertained"

myself included, for this piece of nastiness. I know people who've called the national offices and asked that she no longer be included in the ucc.org blog rotation. She's been held up to us as some kind of super-pastor for some time now, but I've always found her arrogant and irritating. For me it's personal. A member of her congregation, indeed a former moderator of her congregation, lives in an assisted living center in my town, about an hour's drive from Lillian. In the 7 years I've been here, Lillian has never visited this parishioner. Not once. Of course, I win, because this woman is delightful, and I visit her regularly. But it would be nice if her pastor would step away from the computer, stop writing crap which only confirms people's feelings about Christians, and be a pastor once in a while.

And a lot of people have decided to find their own spirituality in places other than churches.
People are picking and choosing the spiritual practices that mean something to them.

Is picking and choosing a religion or "spiritual path" that feel right for you a good or bad thing?

If you randomly choose a religion that seems to appeal to you, probably not a good path. If, on the other hand, you come to your decision based on personal observations, life experience, and your personal ethics, I would say you are doing what is best for you.

Remember, not every spiritual path leads to religion, or even a belief in a deity. As one poster said, you don't have to believe in God to be awed by the universe and it's contents.

realize that their religion and the ones they know about are bullshit full of self contradiction and inanities. They still want that spiritual connection they feel. Maybe they will find it in a different religion. Maybe they will keep asking questions that reason and logic will lead them to the thought that there is no basis for God. And that you can be an atheist and still maintain the sense of awe and majesty toward the Universe.
Either way, abandoning a dogmatic faith lead by assholes like the Reverend seems like a good start to me.

It actually says "If people can be in a church and be "spiritual, but not religious", then we come pretty close." That's on the frontpage of their actual site.

I've read that entry and it was pretty un-UCC-like. It seemed plenty others were offended. Even the prayer at the end seemed pretty condescending ("Dear God, thank you for creating us in your image and not the other way around. Amen." Seems like she's implying that's what the spiritual but not religious people have done.) It's too bad because even though I'm not UCC I have liked that devotional blog, but that was just one bad apple in it. The one today for the record was fantastic...and probably one she should take note of: http://www.ucc.org/feed-your-spirit/daily-devotional/our-father.html

with its specific dogma. Or depending on the church, internal scandals can also be a driver...certain lapsed Catholics, escaped FLDSers, etc. But they still are generically theist and still find comfort and meaning in the idea of a greater power. There are also some who are Christian but just don't enjoy formalized worship services and rituals.

The guy on the airplane may have just been trying to explain that he personally feels more spiritually connected when outside experiencing nature than he would feel in a church. Doesn't mean he's shitting on church for all those who do find meaning in it.

It's not hard to relate to the SBNR crowd. IMHO, if a religion says it is the only way to God, it probably isn't. After all, why would a supreme deity deliberately limit the road to salvation to one narrow path?

That pretty much describes most organized religions now a days.