But What Does That Mean?

I hear this over and over again: “I am not religious, but I am spiritual…” or “God doesn’t appreciate religious people, only spititual people…”
This is one of those buzz sayings that sounds “deep”, but what on earth does that mean? I think it means that following rules is bad, but following your “conscience” is better?
I don’t know. I heard that saying yet again yesterday, and then saw a bumper sticker that said “Exercising my right to piss off the religious right!” and got really annoyed. I guess her buymper sticker certainly worked.

9 comments

  1. I get this all the time from Catholics in Quebec who don’t realise the importance of mass anymore. It’s an OPTIONAL thing to them. It goes even to the point of becoming undesirable. One can apparently be a good Christian/Catholic without stepping foot in a church. Ummm, tell that to the saints please…

  2. My most-hated spiritual saying: “God understands.” Sure He does, but that doesn’t mean it’s right to snub Him, do evil or sinful things or be a self-centred prat. He understands our sins are objectively wrong. Sheesh.

  3. This is one of my pet peeves too!
    Next time someone says it, I think I’ll say, “Yeah, well, the devil’s pretty spiritual too.”

  4. “Spiritual” means you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.
    And you can worship God in bed on Sunday morning. Or out on the golf course…..

  5. What it means is that the speaker is illogical and engages in some sort of sexual deviance (I hear this most often from people in their 50’s who were raised Catholic but are divorced and “remarried”, and I used to hear it from college girls who went to Catholic high school and got to college and immediately experimented with vegetarianism and alternative sexuality).
    As for bumber stickers like that: I am guessing that the driver had a permascowl. They usually do.

  7. How about the “God loves me just the way I am” comment”? My reaction is “Yes, but he loves you and me too much to let us stay this way!”

  8. Oh yeah, the best comeback for “God understands” is to say, “that’s why He built Hell!”
    Dante says it better, of course (see the inscription on the Gate of Hell in Inferno).

  9. Isn’t the virtue of religion the act of giving back to God? If so, it’s pretty obvious that ‘spiritual’ people want to feel good about themselves without giving God any part of their lives, whether in worship, in moral obedience, or in tangible sacrifices.

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