Defining the term "spiritual" while leaving a legalistic religion behind

Roughly three months ago, Jon Meacham published an article for NEWSWEEK titled The End of Christian America. In this article, the author mentions that “the rising numbers of religiously unaffiliated Americans are people more apt to call themselves ‘spiritual’ rather than ‘religious.’ (In the new NEWSWEEK Poll, 30 percent describe themselves this way, up from 24 percent in 2005.)” Since reading this story, I have been on the watch for any individual who might make such claims, and I have found one right here on the Orlando Examiner website - Judy Campbell, the Orlando Spiritual Diversity Examiner.

Before I get to Judy’s comments, I want to take a quick look at a general definition for the term “spiritual.” Merriam-Webster defines the word spiritual as “of, relating to, consisting of, or affecting the spirit,” which is then defined as “the immaterial intelligent or sentient part of a person.” Essentially, the spirit pertains to that which is not necessarily physical or tangible. The Greek word for spirit is pneuma, which is translated in several different ways. One translation for the word that sticks out to me means a gentle breeze or breath, indicating that this spirit is something living and active. I could discuss this matter in length, but my intentions at the time are to provide a quick yet comprehensive definition as a reference point.

Now I could give my thoughts on those who claim to be “spiritual” and not “religious,” but that wouldn’t really answer any of my questions, so I chose to contact Judy after reading some of her recent work, including her online bio:

“Judy began her spiritual journey more than 20 years ago. Peeking and prodding into various religions and spiritual practices, she has come to understand the significance of religion and spirituality in people’s lives. Judy continues to observe, learn, and grow, believing in the inevitable evolution of humanity.”

In her most recent article, Judy describes a portion of her spirituality:

“There are many reasons I am inspired by my spirituality. For me being spiritual instead of religious, frees me to be myself, to try on new and different things. My spirituality allows me to create my own traditions, to be motivated by the calling of my own heart, instead being dictated to by mass consciousness.”

After reading several pieces, Judy was kind enough to answer some of my questions via e-mail:

1. Can you elaborate on what you mean by being spiritual instead of religious? You note that being spiritual frees you to be yourself - are there portions of religion that you find to be binding?

Basically to me being spiritual means being in touch with God, Spirit, your Higher Power. There's a mindfulness of how you are being in your life and the world. That's not to say that people that are spiritual are better or more right, it's just a different orientation a different approach to life for me. I have met people whom I consider religious, and all those things that didn't or don't work for me, work for them. First of all for me spirituality is subjective, and therefore it is open to individual interpretation. Religion in my opinion is more structured and yes restrictive. There are specific ways to behave and even specific rituals to follow, even specific books to read.

2. What do you mean by “instead being dictated to by mass consciousness?”

Mass consciousness is the collective ideas and rules we all agree to govern our lives by, which may or not be true,such as, at one time in this country a person of mixed race descent was looked upon as less than desirable and people were even forbidden by culture, religion, and laws from intermingling, we now have such a person as our president.

3. Your bio states that you believe "in the inevitable evolution of humanity." What all does this process entail?

I have no idea what the process of humans evolving entails as a step-by-step process, in my spirit I feel, universal principles such as Love, Peace,Joy and Harmony as well as a sense of Oneness are states of being that we, I believe, want to manifest on this planet.

Once again, I would like to thank Judy for taking the time to answer these questions. At this point, I would also like to make several statements in regards to the answers to question number one. Let me preface the following paragraphs by stating that in referencing religion, I will be primarily discussing Christianity seeing as that is the area I am most qualified to write about.

To begin with, I think that society as a whole harbors incorrect presuppositions about religion. I won’t necessarily play the blame game, seeing as I feel that Christianity has often been misrepresented by its supposed adherents, but nonetheless, society now possesses numerous false ideas about what the movement is or what it should be. The truth of the matter is, Christianity becomes simply religion when relationship is replaced by routine.

This is the exact problem the apostle Paul dealt with in writing to the church at Philippi. In Philippians 3:1-16, Paul addresses the difficulty in dealing with the Judaizers in the church. This group set out to impose a sort of “Christian checklist” for all believers. The problem in this, of course, is that salvation is nothing that can be earned by human means. Upon successfully explaining this issue, Paul then proceeded in 3:17-4:1 to address antinomianism. This movement was essentially the opposite of the legalistic Judaizers, and these people felt that salvation could be obtained only by faith. Unfortunately, these people had actual standards for behavior.

What this means for Christians today is that we won’t be saved by simply fulfilling self-imposed obligations of praying, reading the Bible, etc. However, we do have to maintain behavioral standards for spiritual living, and these disciplines will involve structure and order to some extent.

Going back to Judy’s comments, I agree that spirituality, to an extent, can be subjective. The term spiritual is now being defined by even the religiously unaffiliated, as shown firsthand in Judy’s writing and also in a recent NEWSWEEK article. However, spirituality is still being defined within the religious realm, with some facets actually overlapping those of the unaffiliated. Most importantly, religion handled in the proper context is not restrictive to spirituality. This proper context entails a living and active (or spiritual) relationship with God and His creation.

While I might have seemed to refute some of Judy’s statements at times, my intentions in writing were not to pit two sides against one another (in fact, I am very grateful that Judy answered my questions). My hopes were instead to create a clearer picture of what definitions of the word “spiritual” one might encounter today, and to prompt the reader to ask him or her self, “How do I define the term spiritual?”