In a discord community I’m active in, the topic of a popular band’s new singer came up. What initially seemed exciting gave way to feelings of uncertainty and frustration as more details about who she’s linked to religiously came out. In short, it’s a “church” though not the Christian variety, that’s popular with celebrities and linked to lots of financial exploitations and other nefarious stories. Anyways, it made me less excited about the band and it got me thinking about spirituality.
It’s hard to escape spirituality. In a fragmented and chaotic world, spirituality provides a deeper connection point between people and the divine (whether that’s a divine entity, the universe or some form of collective consciousness). I think it’s an intrinsic part of the overall human experience. Personally, spirituality led my family and I to spend 13 years living over seas working with a faith based nonprofit. It also drew us back home when we weren’t willing to sell out our integrity and beliefs for the sake of power. Spirituality drives people to do lots of different things in life. It’s not without it’s challenges though. As implied above, it’s easily exploited for the sake of power and control.
When considering spirituality - it does a lot of good things. To name a few:
- It provides comfort in times of distress (it can be nice knowing that people are thinking or praying for you).
- It often creates community and belonging where one might not have had it before.
- It also provides a framework through which one can interpret the world around themselves (all of the beliefs/rituals/sacraments/etc).
It might be through organized religion (like what I grew up in), personal beliefs, or practices like mindfulness and meditation, the desire for spiritual fulfillment is very real (from what I’ve experienced in my 40+ years).
All of these positives though have dark sides that are easily exploited. Comfort can give way to the practice of spiritual bypassing, where spiritual talk is used to avoid actually dealing with the world around us. Vibrant and thriving spiritual communities can quickly become cults rooted in control and abuse by bad leaders. The beliefs that shape how we view the world can easily be come unchanging dogma that prevents us from actually engaging with its realities.
The spiritual landscape is also riddled with instances of exploitation. History shows that people with power (or just craving power) can easily co-opt the spirituality of individuals and institutions to take advantage of those individuals and institutions. Inquisitions, witch hunts and crusades all come to mind. We see it today in Christian spaces with pastor after pastor after pastor abusing their power. All religions struggle with it (see the Rohingya genocide perpetrated by Buddhist nationalists as an example).
A desire for real and genuine spiritual connection will always be natural I suspect; generally speaking it’s a part of the human experience. We must remain vigilant about the potential for exploitation and abuse within these systems. We’ve got to be honest and open about it. At the very least this means acknowledging it when it occurs and dealing with it. Personally my hope remains that if we can be self aware, honest and open, we can build better systems to foster a spirituality (no matter the stripe) that uplifts rather than oppresses.
In embracing awareness and accountability, in embracing an authentic and vulnerable community, we create a spirituality that (hopefully) nurtures and empowers, and becomes a beacon of hope and healing for all who want such a thing.
Thinking on this today I do wonder how others perceive spirituality. What are some practices or insights that help you find a balance in your own spiritual journey? Feel free to share on the Mastodon post linked below (if you want to).