Insiders and Outsiders: Religious Communities

First, in response to the kind words, I want to say that I’m happy for the wonderful group of people that have been posting comments to my blogs on this subject. It brought to mind something I’d thought of in the past: what a great conversation we’d have if we were ever in the same place at the same time!

Not surprisingly, comments to last post are thoughtful and come from a variety of angles. I’ve needed to focus on just one of the major themes.

Individual and Community

I was led to think about the distinction between community and the individual “alone with his or her God.” On the one hand, there are religious communities; on the other, there is the spiritual experience of individuals.

Some of you weren’t comfortable with the word “spiritual” – it does have a number of connotations. How about if, as a working definition, we call “spiritual experience” whatever it is that goes on in our hearts and minds that leads us to do good? And, on our bad days, to aspire to it despite ourselves! Let’s call this the G factor – admitting that we haven’t defined what goodness is, which would obviously be a major topic in its own right. For many of us there is also a B factor, with “B” standing for belief.

Perspectives

Some of you point to the value and perhaps even the necessity of participating in a religious community. Others do not see this as essential or even necessarily desirable. Here are some thoughts that occur to me:

1. Participation in a religious community usually assumes acceptance of a belief system.

2. From the viewpoint of the participant, participation is crucial. Going to the church, mosque, or temple is a matter of affirming the belief system through ritual. Furthermore, there is the belief that rituals mediated by church officials constitute special transmissions, so to speak, of God’s power.

3. A member of Religious Community X may view a member of RCZ as not having got it quite right in terms of belief and the attendant rituals – or, at the extreme, view RCZ as warped or evil. Differing religious beliefs are difficult to impossible to reconcile.

4. To me, religious institutions don’t stand out as paragons of the G factor. They seem to represent pretty much what might be expected of human beings. There are many examples of religious organizations doing good things for others; there are many examples of religious organizations bringing suffering to others. As individuals, the majority of religious officials and community members appear, like the majority of our species, to fall somewhere in the middle: people who are neither great saints nor criminals.

The Wider Community

Note that a person’s spiritual experiences (as in “G-factor” above) – whether the person is a believer or non believer – can powerfully alter his or her behavior within whatever communities he or she participates: for example, family, school, or work. The wider community may be as spiritual as we collectively make it.