Spiritual Nutrition
By Carl Munson
Some way into a 'guilty pleasure', fry-up breakfast in a supermarket this week, I was upstaged by a more nutritionally reckless individual – a schoolboy tucking into a pot noodle accompanied by a cola drink.
I'd caught sight of him as I was reading with great interest, the work of another newspaper columnist, bemoaning the fact that most people don't understand the significance of Easter and just make good use of a couple of work-free days – oblivious to any spiritual significance.
The combination of the nutritionally-challenged youth and a spiritually-challenged nation got me thinking, and excuse me if this is sounding like a sermon, but as sure as food is nutrition for the body, spirituality is surely nutrition for the soul – or whatever you choose to call that hidden, yet deepest part of yourself.
Put another way: as sure as what we put in our mouths builds our bodies; whatever we put into our hearts and minds builds our ‘being’. And to push the analogy further: if it’s junk food we eat, it’s likely we’ll build a junk body, prone to disease and lethargy; and if we starve or compromise ourselves spiritually, it follows that we might feel a bit empty and lack the resources to face the facts of our lives with strength and courage.
Going back to my brother in print, he seemed to take it further by suggesting that our general lack of understanding in the Easter department caused a national crisis of character. And whilst I’m with him on the idea that putting worship before - or at least within - bank holiday-based leisure might make the world a better place, I’m not sure that you necessarily need to be a Christian to be an upstanding pillar of the community.
And anyway, why should living a good and principled life be confined to one church-going day of the week, or even a couple of bank holidays a year?
But let’s return to the way we nourish our souls for a moment and consider the folk - a majority according to a recent BBC report - who “believe in God, pray and think of them selves as ‘Christian’, despite not going to church”, those who are “believing without belonging”, as well as those who follow the world’s other spiritual diet plans, the many millions, if not billions who get their soul sustenance elsewhere.
Let’s remember that church-based, corporate Christianity is a means (not the means) to an end. And of course that end is not an end in itself. You cannot be a Christian, or any moral position, once and for all. Like any true spiritual practice it lives or dies in the moment, and the challenge to live what you believe to be right and true, is there in every second and opportunity of your living life.
On the matter of shrinking congregations and the "curse of apathy", maybe the churches aren’t empty because we are becoming an increasingly god-less lot; maybe they’re empty because we are ‘cutting out the middle-man’ and finding our own, new ways to connect with the divine. For me, worship is gratitude, contemplation, meditation, awe and love; what better time than a Bank Holiday weekend - free from the stresses of every-working-day life - to remember to do these things?
But insiders don’t share my positivity about ‘disintermediation’ – the aforementioned side-stepping of the middleman that’s happening in many areas of our daily lives like the Internet, where consumers connect directly with manufacturers, upping convenience and cutting costs.
Recent research by Christian charity Tearfund, says 26 million adults claim to be Christian, whilst 32 million have no connection with church. Terafund’s President Dr Elaine Storkey, a Christian academic and broadcaster, seems to think it’s a sign that people want everything - including Christianity - on their own terms.
She says: "People are used to instant gratification, they are used to having what they want, when they want without putting in too much effort. Having a connection with Christianity is not a problem for most people; it's when something is asked of them that they start to struggle”
“Some sort of ‘vague Christianity’ acts as a way for people to keep their options open, they don't have to think too hard about life and aren't pushed outside their comfort zone,” says philosopher Dr Julian Baggini, adding to the idea that most ‘believers’ are part-timers or are in some way cheating.
I’m not sure. In my experience, more and more people are seeing themselves as ‘spiritual’, rather than ‘religious’ and for the churches it’s a problem of ‘market-share’ because they just don’t get it. Modern spirituality, though understandably critcised as “having things your own way”, is a much taller order than generally portrayed.
Rather than following dogma and doctrine, the people I know - who might say they are more spiritual than religious - are well-read deep thinkers, open to discussion and put things into practice that make sense to them at the deepest level. Their lifestyle choices are conscience-driven and they see the ups and downs of life as an education that allows personal development and spiritual awakening.
I think the image of a secular UK where everyone has embraced consumerism as their modern-day God, is misplaced. ‘St Pixels’, an internet church complete with daily prayers, readings and a chat room for its online congregation proves there’s a timeless human need that longs to met in new ways. Whether religious or spiritual, I maintain we’re all looking for God – to be nourished spiritually - each in our own way; however strange, shallow or fickle it may seem from another’s point of view.
This article was posted by Carl Munson
