TruthBook Religious News Blog

Editorial by Terry Sanderson

...a survey of 6,853 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 found that they preferred being “spiritual” to being religious. A third of the sample said they didn’t trust organised religion.

The survey was conducted by the Minneapolis-based Search Institute and released last week. The first question was, “What does it mean to be spiritual?” There were nine choices, running from “believing in God” to “being true to one’s inner self.” They also could say that there is no spiritual dimension, and there was an “I don’t know” option. 93% of the young people surveyed believe there is a spiritual aspect to life.

But before the “faith leaders” start jumping for joy, we have to look more closely at what these youngsters men by “spiritual”. “Spending time in nature” topped the list of responses. “Listening to or playing music” was No. 2, and “helping other people or the community” was third. “Attending religious services” came ninth.

The churches are helpless in the face of this trend, which is mirrored throughout the Western world. Young people hate the authoritarian, unjust and bigoted way in which they see organised religion behaving. Some of them who were questioned further by the pollsters said they didn’t like the sexism and homophobia and the attendant cruelty. They didn’t like the way that religions all claimed superiority over other world views.

It’s a trend we should welcome and encourage. Eventually it will rob the arrogant “faith leaders” of their power to create conflict. Young people are showing that it is time for a change. And they don’t see that change coming from the churches or the mosques. They have started on a new journey, and although it will lead many of them to other forms of superstition and irrationality, many others will conclude that they don’t need any of the supports of unreason and will end up perfectly contented atheists with an attendant “spirituality” that most of us would simply define as common sense and human compassion.

Labels: Authoritarian, change, organized religion, Search Institute, spirituality, Terry Sanderson

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Obama taps into our yearning for meaning, spirituality

BY DESIREE COOPER
• FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
• November 19, 2008

The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States was a defeat for the Christian right, but that doesn't mean that faith didn't play a major role in Obama's resounding victory. While the Republican Party ran under the mantra of "God and country," Obama tapped into something possibly even bigger -- God and spirit.
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A survey out this month revealed that 52% of Americans age 12 to 25 say that they don't trust organized religion, but that they are increasingly spiritual. According to the Minneapolis-based Search Institute, young people are turning away from their churches, mosques and temples and finding God in nature, music, friends and community service.

A 2008 University of California Los Angeles study showed that 62% of college students see themselves as spiritual and believe attaining inner peace is an essential life goal. In that study, spirituality was defined as caring about the condition of others and of the world.

It's easy to see how Obama's rhetoric would appeal to them, and to the countless adults who consider themselves nonreligious, but spiritual. His language of hope resonated with the spiritual teachings of love over fear. For the spiritual-minded, community organizing is not something to ridicule, but to emulate. I can't tell you how many e-mails and bumper stickers I see bearing the Gandhi quote: "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Change -- now there's a holy idea.
Deep connections

Opponents pegged Obama's optimism as naive. But his political rhetoric dovetailed with a pervasive spirituality that teaches that words and thoughts do shape reality. Want to know the secret? Thinking can indeed make it so.

Obama's exhortation for Americans to transcend difference was also in synch with a spiritual world view. When the Dalai Lama received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007, he, too, urged America to govern "from the perspective of the oneness of humanity, and from a profound understanding of the deeply interconnected nature of today's world."

Even Obama's slogan, "Yes we can," could have been out of the mouths of the best-selling spiritual writers of our time, from Wayne Dyer to Deepak Chopra to Eckhart Tolle.

On the day after the election, Marianne Williamson, author of "Healing the Soul of America," e-mailed a mass message. In it, she observed that "the Obama phenomenon did not come out of nowhere. It emerged as much from our story as from his -- as much from our yearning for meaning as from his ambition to be President."

For those of us who have learned to expect a miracle, we got it in our new president. But the real miracle has been our own spiritual awakening that made his election possible.

Whether President-elect Obama knows it or not, he is backed by an army of believers -- people who understand that the promised change is not just his responsibility, but the responsibility of each of us.

Labels: Barack Obama, change, Desiree Cooper, faith, hope, spirituality

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Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Choice: A Healthy Trend Indeed!

by Lauren Artress

The fact that many people change their religious affiliation nowadays is a healthy trend. Changing dominations shows that people are thinking about their beliefs. People are paying attention to what nourishes them spiritually and what leaves them dry, empty and uninspired. No longer are they satisfied with the beliefs that were passed down to them through their families. They want first hand experience of the Divine. The shift to a new religious paradigm relies on tuning into themselves and taking more responsibility for their spiritual lives. And that is what the Pew survey is identifying.

Often having many spiritual choices is demeaned by the phrase “the shopping mall mentality” of religion. This spiritual smorgasbord is a threat to the mainline churches that are struggling with declining membership. These churches, for the most part, are established to articulate and inculcate beliefs. But the spiritual hunger lies in establishing a relationship with the Divine, not “believing” in a masculine God who lives disembodied in the sky. The anonymous quote “Religion is for people who believe in hell; spirituality is for people who have been there” still holds true.

Underneath all the searching, we are hungry for spiritual sustenance. We long to live a symbolic life that has meaning beyond our everyday activities. We long for a safe place to express our devotion and to light a candle for our deepest hopes and longings to be manifest in the outer world. Or, we may need to support our creativity by igniting the creative spirit through insight and awakening the imagination through new experiences. Other times—as Mary Oliver says “if it all we can do to keep on trudging” then we need to find a place that will deepen our faith as we white knuckle it through.

Labels: belief, change, Lauren Artress, religion, spirituality