Spiritual but not Religious

This catchy phrase has been circulating quite a few years now.  For some reason, I could not bring myself to buy the bumper sticker ("spiritual but not religious") after church. I guess I wasn’t quite settled on the phrase. When I first heard of this phrase at the church I was attending a few years ago, I originally thought it was the result of a Pew study about America’s church-going habits (but I can’t locate the study right now).  Then I found it was also stemming from the results of a branding study done for Unity[1], which I decided to review when this topic came up in class.  There were a high percentage (62%) of external survey respondents who were no longer associated with the religion of their childhood.  They still considered themselves to be spiritual, i.e., meaning they still valued connection to God, but not with all the trappings or the same ritualistic practices they might have experienced as they were growing up under in their parents’ household. I think my church’s marketing team thought this phrase “spiritual but not religious” would attract people to Unity and implied that if someone wanted to come back to having a spiritual connection, Unity would be an option to consider. It sounded like a good intellectual approach.

What I felt cautious about (and still do) is that the very same folks in the “spiritual but not religious” bunch, can end up being just as dogmatic and religious as what they’re claiming to distinguish themselves from. When I think of it now, Unity can indeed be considered religious, according to the definition (a set of beliefs and practices); we do the same things weekly like sing the peace song, read the Daily Word, a meditation, prayer, take up offerings, sing, and the minister speaks…and most of the time all of this is in the same order each week (have you ever tried changing it?) There are certain things, however, I do like about those practices, particularly the message they carry about wholeness, abundance, Oneness, etc. It’s no longer so much about adhering to dogma and creed for me; I have room and freedom to grow and explore in an atmosphere of love in Unity. So, basically, I guess maybe the phrase spiritual but not religious does not work for me. We are religious with aspect to doing a set of practices. However, religion has a negative connotation for a lot of people because of past experiences, and it seems that's what the phrase was trying to play upon.

Interestingly, the external respondents to the branding survey said this about memories and feeling about “church” as they recalled early exposure to “Christianity”-- repeatedly, certain words came up considered to be negative, i.e., fear/fear-based, hypocritical, boring, judgmental, guilt/guilt-based, strict, dogmatic, and manipulative. I tend to think that if people come into any church, including Unity, and see these characteristics, they will probably not stay for long. Apparently, if people were raised in a strict atmosphere, they are looking for a change from that. Positive words from early memories include family, community, love, liked Sunday School, fun, music, safe/safety.

Where I find myself today (in Unity) is because I was not running from a religious experience necessarily but was always looking for deeper experience, meaningful connection with God, i.e, spirituality. I’ve learned to focus more on what I’m for rather than what I’m against. When I frame my decisions in terms of what is calling to me in my heart, it makes more sense (head and heart-wise) and I get more peace within myself for what my soul is calling for.  I feel like I eventually outgrew each church that I had attended over the years, and my soul just knew I was open for the next experience. Somehow, I have just trusted I would be led (it must be my love of Psalm 23; I believe I will be led) to a spiritual community that teaches how to live and practice the teachings of Jesus. Just so happens, again referring to the survey of externals (people outside of Unity), they saw ---“Spiritual social action, such as feeding the homeless, building Habitat for Humanity houses or other community service”[2] as the top appealing feature for a Unity church/Center. Could it be that culturally, the tide is turning or has turned toward more and more people who want to experience a deeper spiritual connection with God AND their fellow man AND also practice, really practice, their religion in a tangible fashion via spiritual social action?

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[1] BrandSolutions, January 2010 Unity Branding Research Results, Freeland, WA, 2009

[2] BrandSolutions, January 2010 Unity Branding Research Results, Freeland, WA, 2009