But there is so much anger in the criticism leveled at the spiritual but not religious crowd that I can't help but think that there is something wrong about it. That suspicion is compounded when I remember that the abuse of the words "spiritual" and "spirituality" began with the very churches where the anger seems to be coming from.
I also can't help but think that what we really have here is a group of rather bitter people seeing a revival of interest in the spiritual that is apparently not going to save the religious organizations they represent. That suspicion only grew stronger when I read comments made by James Martin SJ in an article at the CNN website.
"Being spiritual but not religious can lead to complacency and self-centeredness," says Martin, an editor at America, a national Catholic magazine based in New York City. "If it's just you and God in your room, and a religious community makes no demands on you, why help the poor?"The second sentence in quote above is just bizarre. If it's just you and God in your room? Just you and God!!! Let me get this straight, a Catholic Priest used the phrase "just you and God" to describe an what he feels is an unfortunate situation??!!
I'm sorry but there is naked political ambition hiding in that quote (as is, unfortunately, the case all too often at the magazine America). A particular social and political understanding of Christianity is being pushed here.
I'll give you an example from here in Ottawa. One of the big, and mostly empty these days, downtown churches has a statue of a street person sitting under a blanket with their hand out in front of the church. Accompanying it is a quote from Jesus meant to suggest that the modern equivalent of helping widows and orphans would be to give money to street people. But most people begging on the street are addicts. Giving them money only increases their ability to harm themselves. And, no, a pedestrian walking by is in no position to discern the difference between those who might genuinely need food and those looking to buy drugs or alcohol. Giving money to street people also supports an illegal drug industry that does positive harm to the community downtown. Children of genuinely poor immigrant families living in the downtown core of Ottawa are being exposed to real dangers by people who thoughtlessly just hand this money out. There is nothing Christian about this kind of charity. The whole notion behind this statue is an empty and meaningless gesture by a church that long ago lost its sense of purpose.
Why do some religious groups continue in this kind of thoughtlessness? Because they are committed not to helping the poor but ending poverty. To ending a poverty that they believe is caused by our current economic system.
And, worse, all this talk about "poverty" is obscuring another kind of poverty. Consider that many of the young people who seek to be spiritual but not religious are getting religious symbols tattooed on their bodies. Religious symbols are, according to some reports, the most common choice for tattoos. Granted, the symbols are understood poorly if at all by those choosing them and I'm sure that almost all of these kids will come to regret that decision. But think about. Imagine the poverty of spirit that drives people to have a religious symbol—seemingly any religious symbol will do—permanently drawn onto their skin. There is a real need here. There is a poverty that needs to be addressed. Churches that only offer a political and social agenda—churches that, as Father Martin would have it, pressure us into maintaining the charity industry—are not feeding these sheep. Maybe the religious critics should stop bitching about those who seek to be spiritual but not religious and figure out how they failed these people.
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