Religion and Spirituality
Mediagirl has an interesting post covering several issues revolving mostly around religion, spirituality and Christianity; here's just a small excerpt:
I suggest reading the whole thing since Mediagirl covers so much ground and there's so much to think about.
The one thing I would like to offer is that I've been around a fair number of writers and poets and others interested in language and the one thing that becomes clear about language and writing is that the words we use have a tendency to lose their meaning over time unless they are constantly renewed; that's one of the things poets specialize in: finding new ways of saying things to give freshness to the things and ideas we have known or thought we knew. I suspect the same is true about religion and spirituality, particularly the latter which makes the former possible. Spiritual meaning, whatever that might mean for different people, requires being made new again, refreshed and deepened. Ironically, fundamentalists know this since they incorporate many new things into their religion all the time: translations, new songs, new images, and new technology; some very conservative evangelicals incorporate rock and roll into their services though forty years ago most fundamentalists would have been scandalized.
One possible difference between right wing Christians and other Christians may be that the first is certain of the answers, whether those answers have developed over time or not, and the second group believe that doubt and uncertainty and searching deeply for answers are an important part of their faith or spiritual path.
Maybe today people aren't paying "lip service" to faith, but in fact are practicing a religious tradition that has been all but oppressed to nothingness for 2000 years. Maybe what we call spirituality is the true faith, because it begins in the heart and soul. Maybe that's not good enough for some people. But since when is it their place to decide? What penalty shall we pay today for the heresy of knowing our own hearts?
I suggest reading the whole thing since Mediagirl covers so much ground and there's so much to think about.
The one thing I would like to offer is that I've been around a fair number of writers and poets and others interested in language and the one thing that becomes clear about language and writing is that the words we use have a tendency to lose their meaning over time unless they are constantly renewed; that's one of the things poets specialize in: finding new ways of saying things to give freshness to the things and ideas we have known or thought we knew. I suspect the same is true about religion and spirituality, particularly the latter which makes the former possible. Spiritual meaning, whatever that might mean for different people, requires being made new again, refreshed and deepened. Ironically, fundamentalists know this since they incorporate many new things into their religion all the time: translations, new songs, new images, and new technology; some very conservative evangelicals incorporate rock and roll into their services though forty years ago most fundamentalists would have been scandalized.
One possible difference between right wing Christians and other Christians may be that the first is certain of the answers, whether those answers have developed over time or not, and the second group believe that doubt and uncertainty and searching deeply for answers are an important part of their faith or spiritual path.
posted by Poechewe at 11:17 PM
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