American Spirituality

When discussing matters of religion, ethics, &c., I hear something from Americans that I never hear from anyone else. Have you ever heard someone, when asked their religion or philosophy, utter the words "I'm spiritual but not religious", or other words to that affect? I used to react with revulsion to the idea; for me it was an oxymoron (especially while I still had the convolutions of belief that I mistook for faith), and I always took such a statement as a limp-wristed excuse to do one of the following:

1. to disregard religion altogether under the aegis of an "I'm ok, you're ok" touchy-feely-ism that doesn't actually require effort of the individual
2. to discredit contradiction by a religious orthodoxy that defines some individuals or 'non-negotiable' behaviors as anathema, such as bastards (once upon a time), divorcees (more recently) or gays (currently, in much of the country)
   
3. or to simply flout the beliefs "of the great mass of their fellow men", a la Screwtape
   

When you talk with these folks, what you hear them say is that they're not against religion, but against "Organized Religion". But I severely doubt that it's organization per se that is being objected to, either superficially or essentially. You'll find that most people love to congregate with people that reinforce their views of world, and abhore the company of those who contradict them, especially on a basic "you don't belong in my culture" kind of way. Organizations generally attract people, not repel them.

I suspect that part of the seeming anti-religious stance taken by those who would seem to be the types of persons who would embrace religion comes from looking at the landscape of religions, and, for lack of a better way of saying it, "not seeing God there". We do have two American religions, though, that one might suspect would fit the bill. The most widely known is the ex-Baptist post-Protestant evangelical fundamentalism practiced by most Americans who call themselves "Christian" without further qualification (none other being necessary because of course all other varieties of Christianity are by definition in error). The other American religion is the syncretic claptrap that people call "New Age" spirituality, being mainly a smorgasboard of Western divination & esoteric yoga welded to a believe in "higher powers" (or "Ascended Masters" or "guardian angels", &c) that help the willing along a path of learning that constitutes spiritual growth. Neither cauterization nor anesthesia fit the bill though--most "spiritual" people are nauseated by both of these home-grown options.

Of the list above, numbers 1 & 3 are clearly diseases. Number 2 is a disease if you embrace a contradictory morality. I think a lot of folks who superficially look like they belong in this list really don't, though, and that there's more afoot than I used to suspect.