Spiritual but not Religious?

This blogger has a neat way to address this. Like him, I'll speak from a Christian context. I don't really know how to address the issue of what someone of another faith tradition might mean when they say they're "spiritual but not religious."

There are plenty of people who may actually mean something when they say, "I'm spiritual, but not I'm religious" Much of the time, though, I think it's a phrase without meaning. People who use it are definitely religious, even if their religion might be a sort of "whatever I sort of like and can remember about Sunday school and some stuff from the blurb on a Deepak Chopra book combined under the Greatest Commandment of Thou Shalt Not Offend."

More accurately, I think many of the people who say this mean, "I'm religious, but I'm not Christian." Except that by Christian, they mean "judgmental person who makes exclusive claims about religious beliefs," or some other misconception. And chances are good it's a misconception, too. David Kinnamon and Gabe Lyons of the Barna Insitute survey group's book unChristian spends several chapters detailing how many people, including those inside the church, see Christians. Opinions vary, but many share the attribute of being mistaken about what being a Christian means, even if they do accurately describe some people or churches who claim the name.

Give me an honest rogue over such "spirituality" any day of the week -- if I try to get a rogue to listen to the gospel, at least I won't have to spend time trying to convince him he's not the swell guy his own opinion suggests he is. We're already one step ahead of the game.