witchery
According to this article, nature religions including paganism and wicca are amongst the fastest growing religions in this country and found that:
The modern Australian pagan is a female Melburnian under the age of 35 who was born in Australia, has a university degree and lives in a de facto relationship.
The research by the Christian Research Association suggests that involvement in nature religions can be a reaction against materialism and consumerism, against oppression of women and against oppressive ideas about spirituality. It may also be a direct reaction against Christianity, which is “seen as having failed women in particular”.
The interesting thing about this, is that the type of people profiled by this research are precisely the sort of people who one might expect to be in the bible belt - people who are well educated, who are reacting against consumerism or materialism, who perceive that there is some “spiritual other” that we need to connect with.
How is it that the church is unable to connect with people like this? If I look around my own congregation and others at our church, our members are well-educated, against consumerism or materialism and perceive that there is some spiritual other that we need to connect with.
But there are people like this (on the estimates of this article 24,000 of them) who according to census figures are classified as having no religion (because wicca or paganism are not listed as religions for census purposes) who are involved in nature religions, presumably because they prefer this option over christianity.
Why is christianity not appealing to these people? Is it because the incarnation of our churches and our faith does not convey a good impression? Are we so tragically unhip that we are turning people away? Is it because christianity is carrying so much baggage of bad perceptions that people aren’t willing to consider it an option? Or is it because Christianity treats “nature” spirituality with suspicion, communicating that christianity is incompatible with these types of leanings?
I don’t understand why the wave of interest in spirituality is not making more of a difference to the church. And it seems to me that we look at the so-called “secular” spirituality movement and think that it is so unrelated to what we are on about that it doesn’t even raise a blip on the radar.
But in fact, this is about our core business. Once if someone in our community was interested in developing or connecting with their spirituality, they came to the church. Now, this is no longer the case, and in a time when a huge number of people are wanting to explore their spirituality.
June 30th, 2003 at 2:39 pm
It is a lot less threatening Dan. Christianity, for many of these people (myself included), comes with a huge amount of negative baggage.
They do not see a christian church as addressing their needs for spirituality in their lives. For many, particularly women, the church has been a place where they have been put down and their needs neglected. The Christian church is a male dominated institution and they feel more empowered in a spiritual endeavour in a domain that has traditionally been feminine.
July 1st, 2003 at 9:27 am
Plus they don’t have to ignore huge sections of moral content in a sacred text. It’s easy to be spiritual when the standards are so low.
July 1st, 2003 at 9:40 am
Bryan, I think this is a tempting response to this problem, that people are attracted to other spiritualities because they don’t make the same demands or set the same standards as christianity.
I just don’t know how true this is. In my experience, church as marketed to the unchurched has become more marketed to being “easy” and I actually think that is a turn-off for a lot of people.
I have noticed that people respond more to a high call being placed on their lives than to easiness. And if all the people who class themselves were Wiccans were really just choosing on the basis of which stream set the lowest bar, then why are they choosing a spiritual system at all?
It seems to me that a lot of nature religion adherents work harder at their understanding and connection with their spirituality than a lot of pew-sitters in churches.
July 1st, 2003 at 12:34 pm
Dan, this isn’t only a tempting response. In many ways, it’s a very valid response. I would say the same thing for people who have adopted unitarian universalism, for that matter.
Part of what you say is true. Evangelical churches in the U.S. show more growth than mainline denominations in part because they do set a higher standard for their members than the mainline denominations. But they also pick a spot and stand there. Right or wrong as people perceive it, there is a part of human nature that does want an anchor.
I was certainly not implying that nature religion adherents don’t work hard at their spiritual understanding. But they do so in a sort of “roll your own” fashion. I was not saying that the absence of a more-or-less standard sacred text or moral code was the *only* reason people were attracted to nature religions, but I think a strong case could be made that it is a significant part of it.
You ask ” if all the people who class themselves were Wiccans were really just choosing on the basis of which stream set the lowest bar, then why are they choosing a spiritual system at all?”
Part of the answer is above: that’s not the *only* reason. But beyond that, humans are innately spiritual creatures. As much as it drives atheists crazy, they will never be in the majority because people want to believe in *something* beyond themselves.
And nature religions which offer little in the way of concrete guidance (and I think Taoism could be considered a nature religion in this sense) are attractive because they give people the ability to connect with something *spiritual* without having to deal with something that commands more attention (not to mention the whole issue of “sin”) than they are willing to give.
It’s just like the difference between the Christian “Religion” and the “Relationship” with Christ. One is a way for a person to soothe his/her spiritual need while remaining more-or-less distant from the center of faith. The other requires a greater amount of commitment and places a higher moral call on this person’s life (not works, mind you - I think you know where I’m coming from on this).
August 13th, 2003 at 6:43 pm
i have nothing to raise a comment. i just to share that being a wiccan practitioner is not a bad practice. it depends on the people who raise their selves tune to bad.