On my way to a spiritual experience this morning, I was going south on a small country road. I passed a church with a parking lot full of sincere cars and a chapel full of sincere people. Coming north was a gaggle of motorcyclists. They passed me as I passed the church. One of the bikers pointed at the church and made a circling motion near his head. His fellows raised their fists to show they got it. The biker was saying of the people in the church, "Boy those guys are dumb." Unbeknownst to them, there was someone inside the church looking out at them and thinking piously to himself, "Boy those guys are dumb."
We all need someone to look down on, don't we?
So there I am driving down the road looking at the bikers and the people in the church, thinking about their attitudes toward each other, and I think, "Boy those guys are dumb."
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7 comments:
Your post reminds me of a statistic I heard recently: 25% of Americans now identify themselves as 'spiritual but not religious'.
When I was a practicing Mormon, I found little spiritual sustenance at church meetings. Since then my spiritual experiences lean more toward nature and quiet contemplation. I realize others may find what I didn't inside church walls. And some may find it on a motorcycle.
Spiritual, for me, does not refer to God, but to personal peace. A worthy pursuit on Sunday and any day really.
I have always found my most elevating spiritual experiences outdoors. And churches (once we left the grand cathedral period) have just shut all that out.
And even cathedrals celebrated what man can do and not what spirit can achieve.
Please, please don't get me wrong here but having interacted lately with a good many American "Christians" I am more and more convinced that they are of the opinion that they have it right.
Recently, against my better judgment I entered into an online discussion on an American Catholic Forum. I was horrified by what people were saying which included things like:
Only Catholics go to heaven
God is a Catholic
Mary converted to Catholicism
If that's what the American Roman Catholic church is teaching then it's no wonder we are in trouble - BIG trouble!!!
Bee, it seems all churches are saying those things these days. It reminds me of that olf movie "Oh God" when he (in the perosn of George Burns) answers the question about whether Jesus was his son, he said that Jesus was my son, Mohammed was my son, Buddha was my son, etc. Being agnostic, I won't speculate about God or his messengers, but I think all of the churches have become far more interested in their own survival as an organization that in feeding the spiritual needs of their people.
By the way, the "spiritual experience" I was going to was a soak in a hot mineral spring. That's about as spiritual as I get. I'd have to rate myself as "not religious, but not spiritual either."
And nobody commented on the clever tag line.
How was the soak? Lovely I'll bet considering the wonderful weather yesterday.
The tagline I missed until you mentioned it. Clever, Ron. :)
Yes he is clever isn't he?
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