Spirituality

I visited recently with the president and VP for Student Affairs of Western New Mexico University. We were discussing ways that the United Campus Ministry could be involved in the lives of students of the University to their benefit, especially spiritual. The president indicated that there were some clergy in town with whom he would rather not work. His interest is in developing and strengthening the spirituality of the students as a vital part of who they are as people, and he did not think some of the clergy in town did this. Theirs, he said, was a religious agenda, not a spiritual one.

He is a perceptive man. How many people have told you that they were spiritual and not religious? The religious community has created the question, having forgotten for too long the difference between spirituality and religion. We can all perform religious actions without spiritual depth behind them, and the hypocrisy of it taints the name of religion and sends these people to find spirituality elsewhere.

Spirituality is essential to being human. It is part of our make-up. Religion is one way that spirituality is expressed. To the degree that a religion does not express spirituality in a healthy, life-giving way it betrays its purpose and violates its people. To the degree that a religious tradition enhances, enriches and enlarges a person’s spirituality it grounds human living in the divine ground of our being and transforms the world for good.