The other day, the following meme showed up in my Facebook feed:

Most of the comments were “Amen!” or similar. And it had a billion or so likes and was shared infinity squared times – which makes me think that the whole meme is wrong. It ought to have read: “Religion is a person in church thinking about Facebook. Spirituality is a person on Facebook posting stupid memes about religion.”

When someone says “I’m spiritual but not religious”, it tells me one thing: belief in God is solely according to their terms, and God has zero input. It’s atheism for people who are too scared to go all in. It’s a damned prideful attitude that has them at the center of the universe, with God on the periphery, nestled among thoughts of what size Starbucks soy caramel latte to order, whether kale or arugula goes better with non-GMO, free range chicken breast, and hoping Joel Osteen publishes another book.

Here’s the thing – God doesn’t want us merely thinking about Him. He wants us to know Him, love Him, and serve Him. To know His will for our lives. To love our neighbor as ourselves. To follow His son, Jesus Christ. To recognize that He is the source of our life, and our destiny. We have been created by Love, out of love, to love. And not a flimsy, flirty, flitty love that the world would have us believe is true. No – the love we are called to show is the sort that hangs on a cross. It’s a hard thing, and religion is the foundation that helps us to love that way.

But I get it – being spiritual is easy. It’s a warm fuzzy because nothing is being demanded of the person. It’s the allure of ‘finding one’s path to God’, of doing what feels right. Pursuing what makes one feel happy. It’s the “new New Age same as the old New Age”. Religion – especially the Catholic religion, it seems – comes off as cold, hard, distant – there are obligations on the believer when it comes to religion. Religion, to some, means you have to feel bad about yourself, that you’re a sinner in need of a redeemer. It means not being allowed to think for oneself. It means being part of an institution that cares more about excluding people than including people. These misconceptions persist for a host of reasons – sometimes because those of us who profess to be religious are crappy at evangelization – but they are misconceptions, nonetheless.

What they forget is that Jesus was religious. He was spiritual, too, don’t get me wrong. But He was a faithful Jew who observed the holy days and went to the synagogue as prescribed. He obeyed the commandments. He did God’s will.

Religion and spirituality are not mutually exclusive – not to serious people, anyways. There will always be people who will proudly say they’re spiritual, but not religious, and the next time I see it on Facebook, I’m half-tempted to post the following meme:

I know, I know. That point about being a crappy evangelist…

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