Religion in America, Part Two: The 'Spirituality' Evasion

You've heard it before. I know you have. We all have. It’s an arrogant, attention-seeking, look-at-me statement. It’s designed to hide moral lethargy behind a smokescreen of independent freethinking. And the statement is this:

I’m very spiritual. I just don’t buy into organized religion.

Wow. That’s deep, my man. I’d ask you to explain what the hell that even means, but I doubt you’ve thought that far past your bumper sticker talking point. But let’s break it down.

You specifically call out organized religion. Is there a difference between religion and organized religion? Is any religion unorganized? And if not, what specifically about the organization of religion negates its value?

The word “organized” is used with religion as a scare word, to imply that the religion that is organized is somehow inorganic, inauthentic, and corrupt. As if sinister figures in smoke-filled rooms got together and “organized” religions in order to maintain control over the opiated masses. This isn’t reality. This is quite literally Marxist drivel.

Every aspect of human society, and every institution within it, is organized to some degree or another. To the spiritualist who disdains “organized” religion, I would say: You claim you love democracy, yet you support “organized” elections and “organized” modes of governance.

You claim you love knowledge, yet you support “organized” educational institutions, libraries, and search engines.

You claim you love the idea of healthcare for all, yet you support “organized” hospitals and medical research facilities.

You claim you love entertainment, yet you support books whose letters are “organized” into sentences and paragraphs and chapters. You watch movies that are “organized” into plots and character development. And if the stories weren’t “organized” in their proper chronological orders, neither the books nor the movies would make any sense.

At second glance, there appear to be quite a few “organized” institutions that you support, you defend, and you cannot live without. So why the unique hostility against, and only against, “organized” religion?

Let’s delve deeper.

Human organization brings you a ton of perks, of rights, of freedoms, of privileges, of advantages, of shortcuts, and of straight-up handouts. And the responsibilities those organizations place on you to aid in their maintenance and upkeep are minimal. So there is little to oppose in “organized” democracy, education, healthcare, and entertainment. Nobody takes the “I’m only spiritual” evasion with these things.

Ahh, but “organized” religion is different, isn’t it? Organized religion isn’t there to make your life on this world as easy and carefree as possible, is it? Organized religion demands you take more responsibility upon your shoulders. More burden. More forgiveness. More charity. More gratitude. More grace.

And there are rules to follow! Oh sure, the “organized” democracy I love has rules, and the “organized” university I love has rules, but with religion it's different. The rules of “organized” religion aren’t just about refraining from crime. They’re about self-reflection. Humility. Discipline. Refraining from judgment.

The rules of “organized” democracy are one man, one vote. The rules of “organized” education are study hard and earn the degree. Ok, big deal, you can live with that. But the rules of “organized” religion hold up a mirror to your soul. And its reflection isn’t as handsome as you assumed it was.

You still like the idea of a supreme being and an afterlife, so you don’t ditch the idea completely. You like the idea of a god being loving and merciful to you, just not so much you being loving and merciful to others. You like the idea of all your trespasses being forgiven, just not so much you forgiving those who trespass against you. You keep the idea of a supreme being on the back burner but never fully turn off the flame. You keep one foot in each camp just in case.

For a while you may have dabbled in the Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, because you thought these religions were all about smoking weed on mountaintops and being one with nature. But then you found out that these religions, too, have rules and responsibilities. So then maybe you became a Wiccan, but it didn’t get you the street cred that it used to get people in the 1990s, and dancing around a bonfire to Gaia loses its faux-edginess after the third night of it.

Circling back into the vicinity of Christianity, the most you’ll concede is that Jesus was just a good moral teacher, but you’re not too hip about the whole “give up everything and follow me” stuff. So you simply pick and choose the parts of religion that suit you, and you dismiss the rest as social constructs designed to oppress people.

That, my friend, is what you really mean when you say you’re “spiritual.” And gee whiz, wouldn’t ya know, the “spirituality” you choose to follow just happens to conform to and approve of your indulgent lifestyle exactly how it is, with no imploration upon you to improve upon or change anything about yourself at all.

What are the odds, huh?

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