Spiritual But Not Religious? Please Stop Boring Me

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Yes, Mendalla, you are right. "Religious but not spiritual" is far worse than being "spiritual but not religious."
 
chansen said:
The writer is scared. As church attendance dwindles, you'll see more and more of this lashing out at the SBNR, atheists, UUs, liberal Christians, etc. It doesn't interest her? When is the last time a columnist wrote so passionately about something that didn't interest her? It interests her a lot. It probably scares her, as a pastor.

SBNR isn't challenging? In what way? I agree that belief is challenging, because I find it impossible to believe. To me, religious belief is completely unbelievable, and I would literally need to be medicated to believe, because otherwise it doesn't pass my internal bulls**t filters.

If "challenging" beliefs are the goal, then astrology must be pretty awesome to her. Does she know about homeopathy? Alien abductions?

People want to maintain a sense of wonder, and they don't want to call themselves "atheists" because that term has negative connotations. So people go with SBNR. I think that's fine. The important thing, is they aren't being instructed by 2000 year old myths. They have to think for themselves and run into challenges for which there are no pat answers, pretty much every day. That's the good sort of challenge. Struggling to believe or live up to some ancient con man's version of how you should live in a modern world isn't a challenge - it's stupid.
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Nancy said:
Chansen...I respect your beliefs. However, I have different beliefs and I don't believe they are stupid. There are no pat answers in my faith. And I have plenty of chance to think for myself. That 'ancient con man' does say some things in the Bible that I have a hard time adhering to, but I remember that his ideas were written down by others long after he was around and in a specific political/religious/social climate. My personal spirituality accepts a lot of the wonders that non-religious spiritual people see, but it includes a faith in God. Not a perfect faith. Not a faith that makes me a perfect person. But a faith that enriches my life and guides me to be a more giving and generous person than I might otherwise be.
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If you're analyzing the bible and you're rejecting parts of it, then my post isn't addressing you or your beliefs as "stupid".
 
Seeler said:
Its been years since I did a lot of travel, and then it was mostly by train. You sit down next to somebody, or they sit next to you. You exchange a few words. 'Nice day.' Then you either talk or not. If you're not in the mood for conversation, you pick up a magazine, or turn your head and look out the window, or close your eyes and pretend to rest a moment.

But if you both are ready for some light conversation, you try to find something in common. "What do you do?" "I'm a pastor."

What next? The person feels some response is appropriate, but they don't really want to go deep or be offensive so they say something about being spiritual but not religious.

Fine. The pastor can turn the conversation around - "What do you do?" "I'm a scientist. Right now I'm working on disease prevention in potatoes." "Fascinating - tell me about it."

Or they can stop the conversation by (a) pretending to sleep (b) starting their prayers (c) pulling out dozens of pictures of their children (this doesn't work with little old ladies who also have dozens of pictures of their grandchildren.) But it gets the conversation away from religion.
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Honestly - when I have identified myself as a pastor I have never had anyone mention to me in response that they are SBNR. People have usually responded by telling me that they too are a Christian - asking me what denomination I'm in - or changing the topic of discussion altogether.
 
Waterfall said:
I see nothing wrong with being spiritual without "religion". It doesn't mean to me that you abandon God, just that you abandon some construct that may limit ones spiritual nature. I personally choose the church to encourage that pursuit, others may not, but eventually I think we all seek fellowship in some form or another because even our spirituality on it's own builds constructs of how we view God. We don't sit in front of a cross believing it's God, it has meaning. I can still sit quietly and see the sun set and not see the sun as God, but I can definitely see His majesty.
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While I realize it isn't necessarily the same thing as SBNR - I do see something wrong with someone being CBNR.

A few people these days say things like - "I'm a Christian - but I don't need to go to church."

While I agree that this is true in terms of salvation - in other ways it is not. Christians need the fellowship of their.brothers and sisters for reasons involving edification - support - and sanctification.
 
What if the atmosphere they've experienced at church is overwhelmingly negative? We've heard here about churches which are judgmental and borderline abusive in their treatment of some members. What if you believe, but just have no viable, welcoming church near you?

I think the answer is, you stop going. The negative side of that, I think, is the potential to be taken in by extremist televangelists who have a wide media reach, as airclean33 and unsafe show us weekly. But I can see why some people choose not to attend.
 
It could also be that there is nothing wrong with the people there, no hard feelings, but the style of worship, the activities, just don't fit for a person. Eg. "Scum of the Earth Church" (a real church - they're being ironic - it's a church for younger hipsters and people into "grunge" music, etc. but also very interested in living the Gospel and serving their community) vs. high Anglican. There may just not be much choice.
 
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chansen said:
What if the atmosphere they've experienced at church is overwhelmingly negative? We've heard here about churches which are judgmental and borderline abusive in their treatment of some members. What if you believe, but just have no viable, welcoming church near you?
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Honestly - that's a fair response. There are people who have been hurt in the past by experiences within churches. If the church they've been mistreated in is the only one near them - I can certainly see them not going. At the same time - I have to say - the vast majority of people I've heard this from or of have been people in the GTA - in which there are hundreds of different churches of various denominations to choose from.

There are - of course - also Christians who cannot attend a church assembly because of medical reasons.

chansen said:
I think the answer is, you stop going. The negative side of that, I think, is the potential to be taken in by extremist televangelists who have a wide media reach, as airclean33 and unsafe show us weekly. But I can see why some people choose not to attend.
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I won't comment on airclean33 and unsafe here - but - yeah- you're right - there is the potential for people who stay at home to be taken in by the extremists.

There are also some good preachers on TV.
 
Kimmio said:
It could also be that there is nothing wrong with the people there, no hard feelings, but the style of worship, the activities, just don't fit for a person. Eg. "Scum of the Earth Church" (a real church - they're being ironic - it's a church for younger hipsters and people into "grunge" music, etc. but also very interested in living the Gospel and serving their community) vs. high Anglican. There may just not be much choice.
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Scum of the Earth is located in Denver - Colorado - where there are also several other churches to choose from.
 
Naomi Wolf Walked Out of Her Synagogue When They Didn’t Denounce Gaza Massacre

Where is god? God is only ever where we stand with our neighbor in trouble and against injustice. I turn in my card of faith as of now because of our overwhelming silence as Jews…I don’t mean Israelis, a separate issue…about the genocide now in Gaza.


I want no other religion than this, that is, seeing rather than denying my neighbor under fire and embracing rather than dismissing those targeted with annihilation and ethnic cleansing.
 
Well, UnDef, your post just received a "like" from me.

If peace-loving Jews had congregated en-mass in Gaza, in a gesture of solidarity with their neighbors, and as Jewish human shields to shield their Muslim neighbors, then the horrors that happened over the past two weeks might not have happened.

On Gaza's side, if Hamas extremism had not been tolerated by the community at large, then it might not have come to this severe over-reaction by the Israeli army. There is room to move on both sides.

But I think that a strong show of support by peace-loving Israeli Jews might well have moved the hearts of the peace-loving Palestinians of Gaza to denounce the Hamas extremism in their midst.
 
Thank you Hermann ... a like from you is an affirmation for me that I am moving in the right direction.
 
The loss of one family's home, of one husband, one brother, sister, mother or child, is a loss for us all. Each tragedy affects one family, but it also affects all of humanity. What diminishes one of us diminishes all.
 
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