religious but not spiritual

[hermionesviolin]

My best friend and I were talking on Saturday about last Wednesday's controversial UCC "devotional." [Edit for those who don't follow me on facebook (where I have commented in various threads, including one of my own) {edit2: or who missed my earlier complaint}: I have basically all of anger at this piece. /warning

Comments

[sigrun]

Thanks for bringing this up! After reading what you linked, my curiosity got the better of me and I Googled to find some reactions. I ended up with thoughts. Mostly that if I ever feel like wandering back to Christianity, it has to be with a UU church. I wouldn't feel safe anywhere else.

And then I wondered about the dichotomy of SBNRs who self-identify as Christian vs. SBNRs who self-identify either as a practitioner of something else or nothing at all. When Daniel disparaged Christians who find God in a sunset, that really struck a nerve with me because I equate nature with the divine-- is it really so unusual to find a/the Creator in His/Her creation?

[hermionesviolin]

> if I ever feel like wandering back to Christianity, it has to be with a UU church. I wouldn't feel safe anywhere else

[paper_crystals]

I consider myself religious but not spiritual. I wouldn't call myself very religious at all but my identity with Judaism is a religious one not a spiritual one.

[marginaliana]

A random thought: me being a spiritual but not religious person, it seems to me that the things you value about your religious experience are the things that are most difficult for me to value and/or wish to experience. So I think I get the asexuality analogy, but from the opposite side.

My best friend commented that she has committed to a set of practices, including communal worship, which frequently do not result in spiritual experience, so the "spiritual but not religious" person might come across as saying, "Hey, I have spiritual experiences all the time, all by myself," which might be experienced negatively by someone for whom spiritual experiences are rare.This makes me wonder - what is it that you and the BF get from this set of practices, if it's not a spiritual experience? What's valuable to you about what you do, religiously? I would be very curious to hear your answer about that, if you felt like answering. I think I have ideas about what religious practice can give someone (and how I, personally, can better get those

[hermionesviolin]

For my best friend, one of the functions of her religious practice (tho not the only one, or even necessarily the primary one) is to make spiritual experience more likely -- she doesn't always have spiritual experience at church, but she's more likely to at church than anywhere else.

For me, spiritual experiences aren't something I particularly seek. What I want out of communal religious stuff is:
* exposure to and engagement with Scripture
* music
* community
* prayer (wow, I realized I left this off the email I sent about this topic last night)

... And I have a phonecall to make, so won't elaborate on that list atm.