I’ve heard a lot of commentary to the effect that a person is “spiritual” not religious. On the surface this makes sense. It was a common fad in the Pentecostal as well as Evangelical circles in the 20th century to equate innovative faiths like the Catholic and Calvinist faiths with “religion” and western Orthodoxy with non-religious “relationship” and “Faith”.
I’ve been guilty this in the past as well. Religiosity is one of the few remaining pejoratives allowed to the politically correct and they brood it about like a goad. The problem is the way the term “Spiritual” has been pirated by the New Age movement and pagan faiths. What used to be a distinction between empty ritual and a relational faith in the person and character of a tangible, present, paternal Creator–has become a cop-out to avoid adherence to any given creed or doctrine. It is being used to cast the Received, Orthodox, Western Christian tradition as a boogeyman out to oppress the free thinker and the Godly.
You ask a person what “kind” of Christian are you and you get vague answers about being spiritual and “just believing the Bible.” Good, you believe the Bible–Torah, Neviim, Khetuvim, Gospels, Epistles, and Revelation of John. Good deal. But what does it MEAN to you? Why are you evading the question? What do you have to hide? What body of doctrinal forestructure, what tradition of faith are you so ashamed of that you can’t tell me what it is?
Another problem with this wishy-washy Spirituality, is the question of what “spirits” are involved? Do you mean the Ruach Hakodesh and the Seven Tributary Spirits of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, or do you mean you cousin Bob who died in 1984? Do you have familiar spirits? A strange black cat? A dozens cats? Sheilaism is rampant.
These Spiritualists see no distinction between Christianity, Mormonism and Islam. The formative principles of these faiths are diametrically opposed, yet “spiritual” individuals insist they believe in all of them. Oddly they often fail to conflate Judaism and Christianity. Isn’t it Ironic? These are the two Religions that are actually capable of commingling, given that essential Christianity is a revision and expansion of Judaism. But the very understanding of God and deity between Mormonism and other faiths is irreconcilable. “As Man is now, God once was?” Blasphemy, if you are a Christian or a Jew–or both.
I’m not advocating armed religious conflict. But Christian, “stand up and be counted.” Stop hiding behind silly semantics and demonstrate what makes you separate. Without distinction and yes, discrimination–what do you really have to offer. But above all, admit that you have religion. The Christian Religion.