In Elizabeth Perez’s room in North Bergen, N.J., there’s a makeshift altar—a table draped with a red paisley skirt. Adorning the altar is a bronze statue of Buddha, a dusty wood incense burner emitting the smell of patchouli, a large purple amethyst stone, a framed picture of the Dalai Lama, a plaque displaying the “Love is patient and kind” verse from the Corinthians chapter of the Christian Bible, a worn and dog-eared copy of the Tao Te Ching, various candles featuring Asian characters, a leather-bound journal with “A Spiritual Journey” scrolled along the cover and a shoe box covered in angel wrapping paper inscribed with the words “GOD BOX.”
Perez, a 25-year-old Bergen Community College student, is one of many Americans who have abandoned their childhood religion—in her case Catholicism—in search of a personalized faith. According to Robert C. Fuller, a professor of religious studies at Bradley University and the author of Spiritual, but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America, nearly 40 percent of all Americans have no connection with organized religion. Yet many of these people, even though they might never step inside a house of worship, live profoundly spiritual lives.
Elizabeth Marquardt, an affiliate scholar at the Institute for American Values in New York City, says, “When people declare that they are ‘spiritual, not religious,’ they are disclosing two facts about themselves. First, they are searchers who are interested in, and yearn for, transcendence—some meaning and destiny that reach beyond the limits of the material world. And second, they avoid organized religion and reject institutionally articulated religious doctrines. In short, they are looking for spiritual nourishment, but not by going to church or synagogue.”
A survey conducted by the Barna Research Group of Ventura, Calif., may hold some insight as to why people are opting out of the pews and away from the theological roof altogether. Seventy-four percent of participants who were asked why they didn’t attend church responded that they found no value in attending services.
“The unchurched felt they could connect with God just as easily, if not better, on the golf course as they could in a worship service,” says president George Barna. “While interested in spiritual things, the unchurched do not feel that church has much to offer their spiritual pilgrimage. The verdict is that the church fails to offer nourishment for the spiritually hungry.”
Of survey respondents, 81percent said that churches have too many problems. Among the unchurched, churches have a reputation for being in a shambles. They believe that churches are inflexible, hypocritical, judgmental and just plain mean. One man in the survey said: “I have enough problems in my life. Why would I go to church and get more?”
Forty percent claimed that church services were usually boring and irrelevant to the way they lived. Thirty-six percent claimed that churches ask for too much money. Astoundingly, only 12 percent replied that they didn’t believe in God. There are more believers out there than nonbelievers, but the church fails to retain and enlarge its membership.
“Most of the stuff in the Bible is just plain ridiculous,” says Jennifer Murray, of Secaucus, N.J., a 29-year-old nurse. “I was raised Catholic, but when I got to college I started to question what I had learned. In college I learned that the Bible was written something like a thousand years after the events actually occurred and that many of the events in the Bible had scientific explanations, like the parting of the Red Sea—that supposedly God caused so that Moses could escape from Egypt—was caused by a tsunami. I just don’t believe any of it anymore—except for the fact that there is a God out there somewhere. I need something practical to believe in, not religious mumbo jumbo.”
Murray claims that she still prays every night before going to bed, but her prayers are more like conversations to God than the prayers she learned growing up. As far as good works, she feels that her vocation as a nurse is part of her contribution to the universe. “Helping others is important to me as a spiritual person, not because I’ll burn in hell if I don’t, but because it makes me feel good about myself to do things for others. I’ve volunteered at a soup kitchen, done walks for cancer,” she says.
Tim Rogers of Fairlawn, N.J., is a 27-year-old fitness trainer and a former born-again Christian. “I spent my whole life in church, and at one time I was very devout,” he says. “When I realized I was gay, I found myself feeling guilty and ashamed and being dishonest with people. I wondered, after being a good Christian, why God would reject me. I’m on my own spiritual path now. I believe that God made me this way. I’m not a bad person. I don’t hurt other people. My family accepts who I am and most importantly I accept who I am. Anyone who doesn’t is intolerant, and that’s not spiritual.”
Rogers hasn’t set foot in a church, save for a wedding or a funeral, since he was 18. He practices Dahnhak, an Asian technique that combines yoga, tai chi and meditation to attain spiritual balance. Rogers also reads spiritual books like A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch, and The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran to keep himself “spiritually centered.”
Perez’s approach to spirituality is much like Murray’s and Rogers’. She takes what she finds relevant out of spiritual texts and applies it to her life. The Buddha on her altar reminds her that happiness is available here and now. The scent of patchouli “has the aromatherapy benefit of releasing stress and warding off depression,” she says. The amethyst crystal is a stone for those born under the sign of Pisces and is supposedly a powerful aid to spiritual enhancement. The Dalai Lama represents sacrifice for others. The Corinthians verse contains ideals to strive for in relationships. And the God box contains Perez’s petitions to God, whom she says she refuses to define other than as a power greater than herself.
Modern intellectual and cultural forces have accentuated differences between religiosity and spirituality. The increasing prestige of the sciences, the insights of modern biblical scholarship and greater awareness of cultural relativism all make it more difficult for educated Americans to sustain unqualified loyalty to religious institutions. Although the desire to explore and celebrate beliefs and treasured values is still important, it’s no longer called religion, but spirituality.
Jane Allande-Hession is a journalism and media studies student at Rutgers-Newark.
