Spiritual but not religious = lazy?

[HisHomeMaker]

This is a thought-provoking blog
You can’t make this up | The Christian Century

The main point of it is that being spiritual but not religious is not good enough for God. Sometimes we are too lazy to go to church to charitably respond to our neighbours as Jesus told us to do. A personal relationship with God doesn't mean finding God in rainbows and sunsets, it means coming together as a church community and showing that we love each other in our actions.

'"When you witness pain and declare yourself lucky, you have fallen way short of Jesus' vision and short of what God would have you do."

"In the church we are stuck with one another, therefore we don't get the space to come up with our own God. Because when you are stuck with one another, the last thing you would do is invent a God based on humanity. In the church, humanity is way too close at hand to look good."

 

[MKJ]

I think sometimes it is laziness; sometimes it is a matter of not wanting to be under authority; sometimes it is a matter of not wanting to be uncool; sometimes it is a matter of not having got far in ones spiritual journey as of yet, perhaps due to youth or other lack of opportunity.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

People want to say they believe in a higher being but don't want the pesky hangups of having to be transformed, undergo an inner change, have to give up nasty habits, or go against the grain of the times.

People want to be able to cohabitate, divorce, abort, have free sex, live a life of egotism and self-gratification with all the niceties and when they encounter Christ they're befuddled. MKJ is right...living under authority is a turnoff to many and is too unhip. Saying one is "spiritual" can encompass anything anytime with no strings attached and it's overall a cop-out.

Religion is spiritual and without organized religion one cannot experience the Sacramental life, the physical and tangiable visible Church God made for His people, and we become selfish islands to ourselves in a modernist self-made dillusion.

 

[ByronArn]

Shortly after I turned 18, I left Christianity due to the strict fundamentalism of my youth. It began with the sexism of the Bible (of both testaments), how the Bible demands a woman to be obedient to her husband unconditionally and just in general treats her like property. My best friends were female, and I knew in my heart of hearts that they were equal to me and to every other man in the universe.

I had been taught that Scripture was all-sufficent, inerrant, and the very word of God all throughout from Genesis to Revelations. Not knowing that there were other ways to view Scripture, I left the faith and was deist for a while before becoming atheist. Christ finally drew me back to himself, and in the process revealed to me that there were other ways to interpret the Bible.

Glory to Christ, who searches high and low for the lost sheep, and brings them back to the fold.

 

[Maid Marie]

Shortly after I turned 18, I left Christianity due to the strict fundamentalism of my youth. It began with the sexism of the Bible (of both testaments), how the Bible demands a woman to be obedient to her husband unconditionally and just in general treats her like property. My best friends were female, and I knew in my heart of hearts that they were equal to me and to every other man in the universe.

I had been taught that Scripture was all-sufficent, inerrant, and the very word of God all throughout from Genesis to Revelations. Not knowing that there were other ways to view Scripture, I left the faith and was deist for a while before becoming atheist. Christ finally drew me back to himself, and in the process revealed to me that there were other ways to interpret the Bible.

Glory to Christ, who searches high and low for the lost sheep, and brings them back to the fold.

Thank you for sharing your testimony. I was just about to say something similar before I read your post. Two college friends left the church for similiar reasons though the details are different. I've been praying for them the last 20 years and trying to live a consistent Christian walk but it has been slow.

 

[HisHomeMaker]

Christ finally drew me back to himself, and in the process revealed to me that there were other ways to interpret the Bible.

Glory to Christ, who searches high and low for the lost sheep, and brings them back to the fold.

Amen! Byron, thank you for sharing your testimony.

 

[HisHomeMaker]

I've been praying for them the last 20 years and trying to live a consistent Christian walk but it has been slow.

I believe a Christian walk IS SLOW. Mine has been, anyhow, and that has been both part of my frustration with the church -- and, admittedly, God -- and a blessing. I am not a patient person. "Spirituality" would be so much easier for me. Thanks to God for the grace I have received as a sinner and for every lesson in patience I get as I grow closer to Him through Jesus.

...HHM, walking for over 10 years as an Anglican and praying for quick answers ;-)

 

[TomUK]

I'm reading a book on Jesuit spirituality at the moment and read this which i thought was fantastic.

'Overall, being spiritual and being religious are both a part of being in relationship with God. Neither can be fully realized without the other. Religion without spirituality can become a fry list of dogmatic statements divorced from the life of the spirit. This is what Jesus warned against. Spirituality without religion can become a self-centered complacency divorced from the wisdom of a community.'

 

[Maid Marie]

I am not a patient person. "Spirituality" would be so much easier for me. ...and praying for quick answers ;-)

That would describe my friends.

 

[HisHomeMaker]

God's timeline is not our timeline. God can achieve anything... in His own time. Sometimes his time is generations, not days.

 

[Maid Marie]

God's timeline is not our timeline. God can achieve anything... in His own time. Sometimes his time is generations, not days.

Oh, yeah...I've tried to tell them that but to no avail. So, I stopped talking about it and just concentrated on living a consistent, loving Christian walk. That's gotten things farther than my words.