The Crusades, the Inquisition, holy wars, witch-hunts, Jihad; when will we learn? Right from the beginning of Christianity, there was scrambling and squabbling, to eradicate other budding religions and the polytheistic religions whether the Roman, Greek or Celtic Pantheons, it did not matter; Christianity took the foundation of these Pagan beliefs and absorbed them as their own holidays and concepts in order to appease the masses by giving to them the rituals such as wreaths and evergreens at Christmas or eggs and bunnies at Easter, wrapped up in their new Christian dressing in order to assimilate them into Christianity. I ask, “Why?” Why is it necessary to bend another to a personal way of thinking?
I will point out first that I am not making any kind of a statement about whose religious right is the right, right. I have highlighted two forms of thought that are historically at odds, Christian and Pagan to make my point about all religion, which is: all sincere goals to respect boundaries, harm no others, be morally positive and to help others to similar goals are, at the foundation, divinely guided until humans begin to inflicting personal opinions on others, create an organization to support the opinion, create a hierarchy for the organization, affording one or a few greater power than the rest. Power corrupts and Spirituality, in my opinion, is the most powerful source we as humans have to accomplish anything positive through philanthropy for the sake of the cause or altruistic endeavor. A friend of mine once told me, “Ideas are good; movements are bad.” Consequently, when Spirituality is calcified into a religion, someone is trying to lay claim to power, the selfless act begins to change, then becomes intolerant, immovable, closed and places a greater value on one thing, belief or person over another, and the corruption is complete.
If one enjoys the community that belonging to a church, mosque, synagogue or temple can offer, then by all means he or she should join in to be with people of like minds but to talk with or have a relationship with the Spiritual is a personal journey and the need to label a personal relationship with God under one banner or another, I have found, is unnecessary. Just pray.
I've heard much derision and mockery of the word Spirituality of late as though the idea of Spirituality without some affiliation with a particular religion is a prime identifier of the simple-minded or somehow a lesser way of thinking. How did Spirituality become a dirty word when it is, in fact, the supposed foundation of all religions?
This concept of looking down one's nose at Spirituality came to my attention during, of all things, a television show in which the premise is two women are placed in each other's respective homes and lives for a few weeks. One woman, a devout Christian, who seemed intolerant of anyone outside of her belief circle, the other, a woman who practiced no faith in particular yet selflessly and sincerely tried to help the people with whom she was staying: the Christian woman's family, with issues of self confidence and the like. The Christian woman's friends who came to visit with the guest-mom reminded me of a couple of hyenas with a whiff of blood as they mocked and ridiculed guest-mom with question about her faith, beliefs and religious affiliation. They gave each other knowing and supercilious smirks as they nipped and bit into the poor guest with their harsh words and biting attitude that somehow they were better than her because they were “Christians” and she was merely “Spiritual.” On the whole, I found the Spiritual woman to have practiced the “judge not,” rule and the “do unto others” rule with more poise, grace and sincerity than the two women who obviously took delight in the pack mentality and in making the Spiritual guest feel overwhelmed by their attack, pushing her to the brink of tears. How proud Jesus would be!
When those who participate in various organized religions find their views challenged by a different concept of Godliness, whether Eastern philosophies, New Age, Old Pagan, Vedic, Jewish, Muslim, or Judeo-Christian, the instinct is to fight to be the one who is proven right. And in the absence of proof, the one who can dominate and conquer takes the trophy. Hence the wars fought over religion all through the centuries, but the war is fought less for religious zeal than for power.
Spirituality is stuff of the interior, an individual barometer for each of us to make connections with God, Goddess, or Higher Power and to leave room for others to choose to do the same. It is the independence of thought that the organized religions find threatening, I think. At it's best, out of Spirituality flows integrity, honor, sincerity and truthfulness. Spirituality is the recognition of the God-spark within us all, without conditions or titles or tithing, shame or sin or dominance or labels. Wipe away the mark of religion and remaining is the possibility of direct communication with the still small Voice within, God or Goddess, Higher Power, Jesus, Great Spirit, Yahweh, Allah, Dagda, Danu or Morrigan: different names, different faces, One Source. It's foolish to think that one religion is the right path and all others on Earth are damned and doomed despite piety, clean living or kindnesses bestowed.
We each have our own path to God. Consider, would my instructions to the center of town from my home in the southern quarter be the same as instructions another takes who hales from the west? No. We each have to follow individual directions to find the correct route to the center. It would do neither of us any good to claim “My way is the right way to bring everyone to the center of town. It works perfectly for me every time and so you should do exactly as I do otherwise you are wrong and will never make it to the center” or Heaven or Valhalla, or Nirvana or what ever the name of the town might be. So if we are to find our own path to our own center, we should concern ourselves with "what is right for me," and "am I being the best person I know how to be" and if our neighbor wants to come along, great, otherwise we should just try our best to love our neighbor as he or she finds his or her own way. And if you really love your neighbor, you'll help them find their own way to a destination ultimately even if that destination has no resemblance your own.
