There are people in Christianity who think that, in order to love God, one has to reject the world. I seek to contend with that idea.
The world consists of two things: Nature and civilization. Both are amazing accomplishments. Rejecting either while benefiting from both is not being righteous. It is being an unappreciative pig.
Can the world – nature and civilization – be cruel? Of course they can be. But so can be people who are against either or both. The Christians have still not been able to live down the Inquisition; and that was centuries ago. Here were people who rejected the world, but had ways of being unbelievably cruel.
If the world really is of the Satan, then Satan must be a pretty clever guy. There are things of amazing richness and beauty in both nature and civilization. Satanic or not, both worlds deserve to be treated with care and respect.
So no, you don’t have to reject the world of nature and civilization in order to be spiritual. I take my relationship with Jesus Christ very seriously, but I don’t reject either nature or civilization. Both worlds contain riches that I don’t know how to recreate. Which means that it would be wrong for me to damn either.
It should be possible to have a viable relationship with both God and the world. I have not created either and I have no right to damn either. Wrong ideas must be confronted whatever their source. There is amazing richness and beauty in both nature and civilization. And both deserve to be treated with care and respect.