24AR29-14

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AR 29:14 - "Spiritual" or "religious" — what's in a name?

In this issue:

AMERICAN RELIGION - Pew: "no clear dividing line between spirituality and religion"

FIRST AMENDMENT - banning unpopular religious displays "is not the solution"

HOMOSEXUALITY - "The first to make his case sounds right, until the questions begin"

Apologia Report 29:14 (1,655)
April 3, 2024

AMERICAN RELIGION

The Pew Research Center has made religion survey work a centerpiece for its gold-standard reputation. With "Spirituality Among Americans" by Becka A. Alper, et. al. (Dec 7 '23), <www.tinyurl.com/4z336ewt> Pew charts new territory to better understand familiar terminology: "7 in 10 U.S. adults describe themselves as spiritual in some way, including 22% who are spiritual but not religious."

   The study's summary begins: "In recent decades, Americans have become less likely to identify with an organized religion. Yet a new Pew Research Center survey shows that belief in spirits or a spiritual realm beyond this world is widespread, even among those who don't consider themselves religious." Highlights: 

   * - "83% of all U.S. adults believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body.

   * - "81% say there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it.

   * - "74% say there are some things that science cannot possibly explain.

   * - "45% say they have had a sudden feeling of connection with something from beyond this world.

   * - "38% say they have had a strong feeling that someone who has passed away was communicating with them from beyond this world.

   * - "30% say they have personally encountered a spirit or unseen spiritual force.

   * - "Overall, 70% of U.S. adults can be considered 'spiritual' in some way, because they think of themselves as spiritual people or say spirituality is very important in their lives."

   Among the topics covered are: "Who are 'spiritual but not religious' Americans?" and "Is spirituality increasing?"

   For some historical reference here, we read that "While Pew Research Center surveys have documented a decline since 2007 in the percentage of Americans who identify as Christian, the evidence that 'religion' is being replaced by 'spirituality' is much weaker, partly because of the difficulty of defining and separating those concepts.

   "This survey is intended to help fill the gap." And, after a good deal of stats and facts, it seems to us that maybe we assume too much about the conclusions of such surveys.

   But first, some additional background.

   "About four-in-ten or more Americans say that dead people definitely or probably can assist, protect or guide the living (46%), be aware of what's going on among the living (44%) or communicate with people who are still living (42%). Overall, U.S. adults are more than twice as likely to say that the dead can help the living (46%) as they are to say that the dead can harm the living (18%).

   "About a quarter of U.S. adults believe it is definitely or probably true that the dead can be reincarnated (27%), defined in the survey as being 'reborn again and again in this world.'"

   Regarding "spiritual communities," we learn: "Fully 39% of U.S. adults say they are involved in a religious community, such as a church or religious congregation, while 14% say they are involved in 'a spiritual community, such as a group that helps [them] find a connection with something bigger than [themselves], nature or other people.'

   "Moreover, most people who are involved in a spiritual community are also involved in a religious one: 10% of U.S. adults say they are involved in both kinds of groups, while just 4% of all U.S. adults say they are involved in a spiritual community and not a religious one."

   Entering more obscure territory, the survey asks: "What kinds of things do Americans have for spiritual reasons?" The things include: "A cross, jewelry; a shrine, altar or icon; crystals;" and "a tattoo or piercing." Result? "48% of Americans have at least one of [these] for spiritual purposes." (Imagine the impact of asking where we cross the line between religion and superstition.)

   As the survey findings summary concludes, the spiritual but not religious - "SBNRs, for short" - are found to be "much less likely than Americans who are both religious and spiritual to believe in the God of the Bible (20% vs. 84%). On the other hand, they are much more likely to say they believe there is 'some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe' (73% vs. 15%). ...

   "Very few SBNRs attend religious worship services. Just 2% say they attend weekly or more often, compared with 40% of adults who are both religious and spiritual. SBNRs are also less likely than religious-and-spiritual Americans to say they are involved in a spiritual community that is extremely or very important to them (5% vs. 14%)."

   However, in "'Spiritual' or 'religious' — what's in a name?" by Kelsey Dallas for the LDS church-owned Deseret News (Dec 7 '23), offers insight from a different perspective.

   As Nancy Ammerman, professor emerita of sociology of religion at Boston University, has been saying for at least 15 years: "Americans' relationship to spirituality, as well as religion, is far more complex than it at first appears.

   "'Spirituality is a word that has as much to do with people's sense of identity and with their political positions as it does with any kind of sort of identifiable experience or something that you can easily point to,' Ammerman said."

   In recent decades, "the term 'religious' has experienced a subtle and then increasingly more significant fall from grace, said Ammerman, who served as an adviser to Pew on the new report. A growing group of Americans is dropping out of organized religion, and even those who remain active can be uncomfortable with the term. ...

   "This trend is driven by a number of factors, according to Ammerman, like a presumed link between religion and conservative politics and the fact that relatively few young people today were raised in religious homes. ...

   "You have to have a way to describe yourself that says to the world, 'I'm not a bad person. I'm a person with some depth, with some morality.' Spirituality has come to be the label that people choose," [Ammerman] said. ...

   "On many questions, 'spiritual but not religious' Americans ... are no more spiritual, on average, than U.S. adults who are both religious and spiritual,' Pew reported.

   "Still there are some key differences, such as that the spiritual but not religious are much less likely than others to believe in the God of the Bible. But members of this category do often believe in a higher power or spiritual force, Pew found."

   Last, we think the following observation by Dallas is significant: "In general, Pew found that there's not a clear dividing line between spirituality and religion. The 22% of Americans who fall into the category of spiritual but not religious have much in common with those who are spiritual and religious." <www.tinyurl.com/bdzhmwfe>

   Perhaps there's more to learn from Pew isolating mainline and conservative thinking within a future sample by asking: "Does the New Testament teach that neither our 'religious' effort nor our 'spirituality' can satisfy God?"

   Also worth consideration: "Study: Unaffiliated Americans are the only growing religious group" by Yonat Shimron (MinistryWatch, Mar 28 '24) <www.tinyurl.com/bde8c3xs>

 ---

FIRST AMENDMENT

"Here we go again: Banning unpopular religious displays is not the solution" by Randy Evans (Iowa Capital Dispatch, Dec 19 '23) -- "The trigger for all of this attention was the decision by the Satanic Temple of Iowa to temporarily erect a small altar with candles and a caped, ram’s-head figure representing the pagan idol Baphomet. The display was off the Capitol rotunda next to the grand staircase....

   "One member of the Iowa Legislature, Rep. Brad Sherman, a Williamsburg pastor, urged adoption of legislation next session that would keep satanic symbols such the Baphomet display out of the Capitol, the icon of Iowa’s democracy. Sherman called the display blasphemous." Evans notes similar examples.

   Rep. Jon Dunwell, a Republican lawmaker from Newton, also is a minister. He called the Satanic Temple display objectionable, but he added a cautionary note on Facebook: "I don’t want the state evaluating and making determinations about religions."

   Iowa governor Kim Reynolds "took a reasonable stand on the display, although she could have been more straightforward in her defense of equal treatment by state government of various forms of religious expression." <www.tinyurl.com/3wk6r3kb>

 ---

HOMOSEXUALITY

"The normalization of homosexuality has long included efforts to square the behavior with biblical morality. These efforts have taken various forms, such as appealing to the 'truly loving God' who 'would never' require people to deny their desires; or claiming a moral trajectory to the Bible so that prohibitions against homosexuality no longer apply. ...

   "What is clear from how often these arguments surface, how quickly they are embraced, and how passionately they are defended is that many people really, really wish that the Bible said something different about homosexuality than it does."

   John Stonestreet (Breakpoint, Dec 12 '23) titles his essay, "Christians Shouldn't Be Rattled by the Latest Wild Claims." His focus is on "A new documentary entitled 1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture <1946themovie.com> claims that the mistranslation of a word in the 1946 Revised Standard Version Bible led to the rampant 'homophobia' that now infects the church. In the film, a Bible researcher and an author claim that a Greek word found in 1 Corinthians 6:9 should not have been translated 'homosexuality.' ...

   "This documentary is the latest example of pulling and positing arguments for LGBTQ affirmation ... and then treating these arguments as legitimate. The trend began roughly 10 years ago, when [LGBT activist] Matthew Vines gave a speech in a Kansas church that went viral. ...

   "Despite a 2,000-year history of Christian belief," many "found Vines' assertions to be compelling, a fact that said far more about the sad state of Christian discipleship than his theology. ...

   "At the same time, this historical consistency exposes just how serious a problem it is when Christians find these new assertions so compelling. ... The result is that even absurd assertions ... confirm the beliefs of the already convinced and convince many who should know better but don't." <www.tinyurl.com/2p9ypkb5>

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