Don't Give Up: Give Your Spirituality a Chance.

Hello and happy new-year, again. It's official. Less than half of the people in our so-called western culture call themselves 'religious' in any way. The reason for that, it seems, is that they know they are not Christians. People know only what they have experienced and most of us know that Christians come in two bunches. One branch believes that a God, even while claiming to be loving, condemns most of humanity to a hell and insists that people 'believe' that He had his one and only son killed because all people are so terrible, that somehow this death makes right all the world's wrongs. To most westerners today, this simply doesn't make sense. They know they aren't like this, so they can't be religious, since those 'fundamentalists' claim to be religious, to have the only true understanding.
   Then there are those of another stripe of Christians, those who don't really believe in heaven or hell, but don't really believe anything else either. They claim to believe in a God of love but you wouldn't know it by what they do. They're going about the business of wrecking the world, just like everyone else. There's no reason to take them seriously, even though they, too, claim to be religious people.
 If these  two types were all there is to religion, I guess I'm not religious either. But there is more.        Most people claim to be 'spiritual', and of course, they are right, in that we all spiritual in nature, how-ever we might define it. Dozens of people each year make it a point to tell me how 'spiritual' they are. In a second sentence, they assure me that they don't need anyone else.
  They're right, of course. We believe on our own. That is a truth. Another truth, however, is that we can only grow with others. If we stay alone, we wither and die, never being challenged, fed, encouraged and helped in ways that count. It is tragic that increasingly, because of the faults and limitations of existing churches, people are becoming even more isolated and small in love and life. We are made to share and grow in love. This is the purpose of life. When this is not the core of any religion, that faith needs to change or die. But it is most tragic to throw out the baby. The fact that the Nazis were elected to power does not mean that democracy is evil. The fact that Christianity is now in the hands of the narrow minded or the small-hearted does not mean there is no love nor meaning in the core of the faith.
  There has never been a time when the world more needed love and understanding, a time when all are called upon to put the common good before all else, a time to challenge the wealthy and powerful. Nothing short of a spiritual revival will meet this challenge. At the heart of any change is going to be the understanding that we are all connected, not only two each other, but to the earth. In that this means sharing and growing  'in spirit' with others, it will be 'religious' in nature. In that it will not be dogmatic and judgemental, not so.
  May all of us claim our spiritual abilities, needs and potentials, knowing that we are all needed as never before. If the old paths upset you, leave them. But don't let them stop you. Giving up and limiting your spiritual/religious journeys is stupid and so harmful to yourselves and to all of us. Give yourselves and love a chance, by any and all names. But DO it. A-men!