Religion and Spirituality

The mere title of this post is sure to make some people squirm with discomfort! For people of my generation, religion is often somewhere between a joke and something to be feared.  Rationale debates about religion and spirituality (and when I say debates, I mean conversations where both sides listen to opposing points of view rather than just speaking loudly in order to reaffirm their own beliefs) are, in my experience, rare. Perhaps this is a consequence of the general Canadian trait to avoid confrontation and controversy.  Or perhaps it is just part and parcel of a modern Western secular society. Whatever the reason, religion and spirituality seem to get the most airplay when a fundamentalist engages in a terrorist attack.

With respect to my own religious background, I was born and raised Catholic although in recent yeas I have attended, on and off, whatever random liberal Christian church happened to be near where I was living.  I’m pretty easy going that way – at the end of the day I find 95% of the messages are the same anyways.

That’s probably why we ended getting Margot baptized at All Saints Westboro, an Anglican church which neither one of us is “officially” a member of!  It’s a family-focused place where they have lots of toys and books at the back and where the Minister is a jolly old fellow who gathers all the kids together at the start of each mass and does a little puppet show.  They then rush off to church school. It’s really cute.  What I like most about going is that it’s a place where I can take Margot that is not about materialistic or personal gain.  I’m not fooling myself, if I keep going, I fully expect Margot to push back when she’s old enough. Good!  Life needs spice.

Of course, I don’t think you need to be part of an organized religion to be spiritual. Jen, my wife, falls into that category (although she’ll tell you she’s a Unitarian/pagan with a dash of yoga spirituality mixed in).  She sometimes attends church with me although today she decided to attend to her yoga side instead – conveniently located across the street from All Saints!

All this to say that I think it’s important to be open-minded about all belief systems: atheist, agnostic; Christian; Buddhist; Islamic; spiritual; whatever.  In the end, I think it’s all about the same thing: the search for truth. What’s so difficult about saying that?