Article findings...
After much reading of articles on the internet on the topic/blog "Spiritual, but not Religious". This article and research information is very interesting and spiritually educational, for me anyway, so thought I would share it with you... hope it will also be as enlightening to all who read it. I am now content in knowing and understanding the meaning of the phrase, and its usage "Spiritual, but not Religious"
Excerpts from the article:
By Matthew Brown, August 16, 2013, Religious vs. spiritual: Study says the truly 'spiritual but not religious' are hard to find
The term "spiritual but not religious" has, over the last decade, evolved from an academic definition to a widely used label for people who have abandoned traditional congregations in favor of a more solitary form of belief and worship.
But new research by a Boston University sociologist has found that the ideas of "spirituality" and "religiosity" are rarely at odds but intersect often in the daily lives of people as they describe their spirituality.
As one study participant who attends an Episcopal church north of Boston said, “I think of myself as spiritual. Because it doesn’t matter what church I’m in. I am who I am.”
And when people do draw a boundary between spirituality and religiosity, they are often making a political or moral statement rather than describing what they believe.
"People who occupy this spiritual-but-not-religious category are really few and far between if you look at what people believe and practice," said Nancy Ammerman, author of the study published in a recent issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. "You have to ask people what are they trying to tell us when they talk about themselves that way."
And their answers paint a more complex picture of individuals’ religious experience that can give faith leaders more insight into how best to communicate and find common ground with those who have a spiritual dimension to their lives but a negative perception of organized religion.
“ ‘Spiritual but not religious' is a polling category, and people aren't polls," said Ed Stetzer, a pastor who also heads LifeWay Research, a Christian polling group affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. "As someone in the ministry, it is necessary to recognize that every person has a story to tell that defines (the spiritual and religious) differently. Each person is made in the image of God and it's worth understanding their thoughts so you can communicate to them an understanding of the gospel."
Read more on this research study, if interested
Source:
National Desert News
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Comments (8)
I found out later how inconsistent those religious practices were to what I thought was good. On the new testament, I believe almost all to be what I praise and consider good to everyone regardless of religious affiliations. So now I claim to be spiritual but outside of THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE church I came to respect then question. This doesn't mean however, that I don't respect all that was carved in the realm of those practices and traditions. And I love celebrating Christmas no matter how it began.
But Teresa, what does being a baptist have to do with whether or not a person is spiritual, but not religious? Help me out here... are you saying being spiritual, but not religious has to do with a denomination?
LJ, thank you for your comment I appreciate and do understand your views. But I don't find many of the Old Testament rituals, religious traditions, and/or ceremonial practices of the Old Testament laws being practiced in the New Testament church of today. Because many churches realize and accept that certain strict laws, and ceremonies of God and Moses were done away with under the New Covenant through the birth and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
But, I, personally, find the Catholic church does practice many man-made rituals that are not even biblical based on the foundation of what God speaks, and this has come to turn many away... just my spiritual findings, thoughts, opinion, views based on what I read in God's Word, the Bible....just saying
Of course, all churches must observe many of the laws God has laid down(10 Commandments)of the Old Testament. But man is not able to fully keep them even so, the Ten Commandments, nor are we righteously able to keep not many of the laws because, it is impossible without the help of God's Holy Spirit living on the inside of a person. This is why God did away with many of His laws and the Mosaic laws man was trying to keep, but man couldn't properly keep them without falling short. Therefore, there is no longer a need for man to make sacrificial offering for sins as was in the Old Testament. Because God offered Jesus (God Himself incarnated) as the pure and perfect sacrifice for sins, once for all, and all for one. We are to live now under this grace and love and not the laws, rituals, or ceremonial practices of the Old Testament.
Old Testament is good and holy, and provides us with teachings, history, understanding of the Hebrew customs and institutions, God's redemption of His chosen people, Gods' status, precepts, and laws for righteous living before God... the OT is for our remembrance of what we could not do by ourselves, and to guide us into knowing the person-hood of God on a personal level. The order of the New Testament provides for better quality of life style for our daily living before God and before others, and for our eternal hope of glory through Jesus Christ
For me, as I have come to understand in my research of the meaning of being Spiritual, but not religious... to be spiritual means to me, to be spiritually connected and open to the knowing there is a true living God the Creator of all things and His mighty power over all things in heaven and on earth... to not be religious has come to means for me, not following the practices of rituals, ceremonies, and certain laws of the Old Testament or the any man-made laws of any church that cannot be found in the Bible, in an attempt to present one's self as being holy and righteous, in an effort to be in close relationship to God.
And violating Commandment 4, even if only gathering firewood for your dinner fire carried the death penalty in the time of Moses. So says the Bible. It had zero to do with employment, but everything to do with physical exertion.
I've explained why Christians all over the world celebrate Christmas, and we celebrate Easter which is to mean Passover and is found in the Bible. We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the grave for the redemption of our sins, and we Baptist call Easter Resurrection Sunday. I see not one thing wrong with this, or caroling and the giving of gifts, not only during Christmas, but year round, so what's pagan about this? These are not just a Catholic thing, these are Christian things and are not pagan practices or unholy traditions according to Scriptures.
I can't rightly say the baptist practice pagan practices, and I've been in the baptist denomination all my life. Our practices are based on Scriptures and are not man made rituals, ceremonies or practices. Not to put down the Catholic church, but to expose the truth, such as ministers/priests not being able to marry, or the worshiping of statues, Mary, and saints, etc.... these are man made practices and traditions and are not found in Scripture to support such practices. All the Apostles of Jesus were married and some even took their wives on mission trips with them. The Apostle Paul was the only one who was not married by choice, to my knowledge.
Yes,it would be nice to narrow things down and define those baptist traditions and practices that are supposedly pagan in the baptist church. I would like to know this for myself, being that I am a baptist.