What does it mean to be "spiritual but not religious"?

I have listened to Rob Bell's video on "Rediscovering Wonder" again, and somewhere in the middle of the video, he mentioned about people calling themselves spiritual but not religious. To him, spirituality is about having a childlike wonder, and being free to question, discover and explore (the mysteries of life) with a sense of awe and wonder, and being open to different ways of looking at things, whereas religion is about being dogmatic and fundamentalist. This view sits well with me.

On another note, it is perhaps no surprise that many people in the christian circles, such as evangelical preachers in general, choose to equate spirituality with Jesus because Jesus has been a central figure in christianity for so long (about 2,000 years or so) that people in mainstream christianity have all along assumed (including myself in the past) that he was a historical character - after all, the idea of Jesus coming to save, love, heal and comfort us and to set us free from religion is a comforting and compelling thought itself. It may explain why the recent video "Why I hate religion but love Jesus" is so popular among those in the christian circles.

To me, after coming to see the bible as a collection of myths and legends, I now see spirituality in a broader perspective - for example, native Amercian spirituality to me is considered spirituality, which revolves around the concept of our oneness with the Great Spirit and with Mother Earth and all living things. Music is spirituality too. I think anything that enables us to keep in touch with our soul can be considered spirituality.

In my recent blog "To be spiritual is to be amazed", I concluded:

"For me, I would say any belief that does not cause harm to oneself or others and instead produces the fruit of love, peace and unity is of the truth because the truth always sets us free."

 I have also read the article "Spiritual, But Not Religious", and I can relate especially to this observation.

"Forsaking formal religious organizations, these people have instead embraced an individualized spirituality that includes picking and choosing from a wide range of alternative religious philosophies. They typically view spirituality as a journey intimately linked with the pursuit of personal growth or development."

I agree spirituality is meant to be individualised, since everyone has a subjective view or opinion about God/Divine, which is influenced by a person's upbringing, culture, experiences and so on. Each person's experiences in life are unique, and it has been suggested by some inspirational sources that we all have our own unique spiritual DNA, so to speak.

I also believe we are already spiritual beings on a human journey, so there is no need for people to become more spiritual (in the sense of becoming more holy or moral or perfect, which itself is a form of legalism). The fact that we are moved by music, art, beauty and love is testimony that each of us is spiritual, and yet at the same time, we also need to connect with our humanity, in terms of our emotions.

I suppose the general idea I have at this point of my journey is that spirituality has to do with experiencing a sense of inner bliss that is unchanging, whereas humanity has to do with our emotions and thoughts (such as those of fears, worries, anger, disappointment, hurts as well as happiness, peace, elation, excitement, passion) that are fluctuating and everchanging - I would say both are equally necessary and normal and natural parts of our human existence. We all need to embrace both the spiritual and human sides of ourselves.

1 John 2 What Does “Love Not the World” Mean?

Does “love not the world” mean to renounce all worldly pleasures like listening to pop music or watching movies? Or does the “world” refer to the deserving system of the world based on do’s and don’ts, as opposed to God’s system of undeserved favour?

Samuel Mathew wrote an enlightening article on this topic.

1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

The apostle John exhorts us, not to love the world and the things in the world namely the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. For these things are not of the Father, but of the world.

The “world” here refers to the world’s system in general. The whole world runs by the system of knowing right & wrong, good & evil and doing the good or right thing as much as possible. The reward is determined by one’s performance. The driving forces behind this system are called the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The flesh denotes human strength and ability. The flesh always wants to live life based on one’s strength, will-power and ability. The prospect of living a life based on one’s resources and ability and achieving the end result looks very appealing (lust of the eyes). Pride in one’s ability is also a factor.

Verse 16 says that this system is not of the Father. In the garden of Eden, God told man, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good & evil. God never wanted man to live by knowing good & evil or right & wrong (Law), but He wanted them to live by eating from the tree of Life (God’s life). God made them in His image and likeness — just like Him. All they had to do was to live by His life and enjoy everything that He had created for them to enjoy freely. He did not give them 10 or 15 rules or principles on how to live a holy, moral, successful and prosperous life. The only command he gave them was to stay away from living by knowing good and evil or living by rules or principles. He warned them that eating that fruit would result in death.

But the tempter came and told Eve that eating this fruit would cause her to be like God. Remember, they were already like God, not by any of their works, but because they were created in His image and likeness. So Satan, put this idea in the mind of Eve, that she could be like God by her own doing and not by how God made her to be. She decided that she wanted to be like God, independent of God, by her own works by knowing good & evil. Gen 3:6 says that the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh) and it was pleasant to the eyes (lust of the eyes) and a tree desired to make one wise (pride of life). By eating that fruit, man implemented this system of works or performance for the whole humanity.

Beloved, are you still eating from that forbidden tree by living by knowing good & evil or rules & regulations or are you living by the tree of life (the life of Jesus in you)? Living by rules and commandments may appear very good, may boost your ego by your performance and will satisfy your flesh, but the end result is death. Are you satisfied with how God has made you to be like Him — holy and righteous in Christ Jesus or are you trying to become like God by your holy living and good works? Verse 17 says that the world and its system will pass away, but he who does the will of the Father will abide forever. The will of the Father for you is to believe on the good news of the removal of your sins by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, whereby He has made you perfectly holy and righteous, just like Him, free from any of your works!

I think religious people, especially those in institutional churches, tend to target young people maybe because they are more impressionable and can be easily brainwashed with fundamentalist doctrines. Also they see themselves as "elders", and out of their insecurities, like to feel "respected" by young people, and do not like to see young people having fun and enjoying their life, especially while they think they are the ones serving "god" and working hard to "please the Lord". Miserable people love company, so they prefer the young people to join their misery as well. Deep inside, they are envious of the freedom young people usually have. As you also noticed, religious people don't like it when people in general are enjoying life and freedom - religious people think this is "worldly".

But if the truth be known, "worldly" actually means "conforming to the world system that is performance-oriented, and based on the principle of doing in order to become" (as we have learnt earlier). To be worldly is to be law-minded and sin-conscious. Anyone with common sense and growing to take responsibility for their own actions would rather abide by the universal principle of "all things are permissible but not all things are beneficial", rather than the oft-used religious threat of a mythical hell and God's wrath to try to keep other people and themselves under control.