We Can Have Both

“Religion” and “spirituality” are hot-button terms. Religion and spirituality can’t thrive in one mind—some believe; will never co-exist in one heart—some contend. I disagree strenuously. Some hold that leaders of “organized religion” use brainwashing tactics to control followers’ words and actions, creating a troop of automatons who use the Bible to terrorize others! Flip the coin! Some constituents of those organized faiths hold a narrow, therefore inaccurate, view of adherents to spirituality, considering them to be WAY out there, sort of floating about, eyes closed, hands aloft— perhaps chanting to some obscure entity, some elusive spirit! There ARE extremes in both camps. However . . . I feel I possess the best of both worlds. Have my beliefs been dictated to me? YES! By the Holy Bible. Do I sometimes recite the same prescribed words? YES? I quote Scriptures, including the Lord’s Prayer, not on command, mindlessly, but when I want to. Do I attend scheduled, organized services? YES? If I just dropped in whenever—I’d be all alone! Now—Do I sometimes close my eyes, raise my hands, and feel profoundly spiritual? Yes, when I feel the Holy Spirit moving in me. “Enlightened” people who consider me ignorant, programmed, and intolerant are much more intolerant of me than I, of them. Where irony shouldn’t exist, it runs rampant. I suppose it always will. “Religion” and “spirituality” are loaded terms. May 22, 2021 entered in The Unseekng Seeker's contest placed 7th of 10 Religion or Spirituality July 10, 2021 entered in A Brian Strand July 12 contest August 1, 2022 entered in the Anything Goes Poetry Contest Sponsor: Mystic Rose Rose