News from Authentic Freedom Ministries

Healing for Our Dying Religions
Copyright 2009 Lauri Lumby Schmidt

As a Spiritual Director and Lay Minister, I was deeply moved by Leonard Pitts' column, (Miami Herald, March 14, 2009) Religion Driving People Away from God. With over 15 years of experience working within and in conjunction with religious institutions, I can attest that the ARIS survey illuminates some difficult truths. We do seem to be "losing our religion." Pitts puts forth a theory as to the source of this exodus (scandal, hypocrisy, violence, etc). While these may be contributing factors in the decline of religion, I have witnessed that the cause goes much deeper than these outward symptoms. I believe the deeper issue is more about lack of attention to the deepest longing of the human heart than it is about greed, power or corruption.

The deepest longing of the human heart is to discover the answers to the following questions:

Who am I?

How can I connect with and know the Source of truth and peace (that which some would call God)?

What are my unique gifts and how am I called to share them in the world?

Spirituality is the way in which we seek, discover and eventually embody the answers to these questions. While religious formation teaches us about God, spiritual formation empowers us to know God - intimately and personally. It is in knowing God that we come to know peace, truth and freedom. Knowing God, we are empowered to embrace our true nature as beings created in love, while at the same time, honestly and humbly facing the weaknesses of our human nature. It is only then that we can have the courage to mine the recesses of our soul for the fears, false perceptions and ego attachments that prevent us from being the peaceful and loving beings we were made to be.

Religion, in complement to spirituality, is the way we live out this search through ritual and beliefs in the context of our chosen community. In the perfect world, spirituality and religion stand in acceptance and support of one another. Unfortunately, these two journeys frequently stand in opposition. When this happens, the individual members of the community feel deprived. It is this unmet need of the human heart that causes people to seek alternatives and eventually leave their religious structures. This exodus is then hastened when the religious structures themselves, along with their leaders, deny their own spiritual journey and operate out of the woundedness of their unhealed and unintegrated selves. It is this unhealed wound that causes the corruption and quest for power we sometimes see within institutions and their leaders.

When sound spiritual formation is encouraged and supported, we grow into healthy integrated beings that can then create and support healthy integrated communities. Sound spiritual formation keeps religious institutions honest and holds them accountable to the higher good. Without this accountability, institutions are doomed to the temptations of the ego and can only be as strong as their most wounded member. This woundedness is ultimately the cause of our dying religions and what we are invited to be open to healing. The good news is that it is never too late to make a change and to be open to the healing promised - and we do not have to do it alone. As God (in the form of George Burns in the movie Oh God!) so eloquently reminded:

"I know how hard it is in these times to have faith. But maybe if you could have the faith to start there, maybe the times would change. You could change them. Think about it. Try. And try not to hurt each other. However hopeless, helpless, mixed up and scary it all gets, it can work. If you find it hard to believe in me, maybe it would help you to know that I believe in you."