In Reply to: Re: The difference between religion & spirituality posted by Donny on March 25, 2003 at 14:32:44:
We define our own world and may adopt group definitions or develop our own. That's our view of the world. It is true that we think that everybody else is a certain way based on our own experience. If all we meet is hypocrites, we think everybody else is one. When we were in the fmaily we met a lot of good people, the vast majority were sincere and idealist. The vast majority of people we witnessed also had those qualities because otherwise we were trained to walk away or not give them as much doctrine as we would others. We got to be pretty good at recognizing and discerning the "sheep". We also got pretty good at recognizing and discerning the "wolves". That environment defined for us the way we looked at (and sometimes we still look at) the world and we are pretty good at that. The more we would witness the more skilled we would become.
How does that relate to our current conversation on religion and spirituality? Well, witnessing was one of oour most important activities (supposed to be although some were happyly drinking whiskey and rye and singin': This'll be the day that I die...
We also preached against religion, the way it was defined to us as a formalities that never went further than the ceiling, it was the form without the substance. On the other hand we had the substance. Was that spirituality? I don't remember if it was ever defined for us that way but we had the correct attitude towards godly beliefs and virtue - or so we thought. Then one day we had to look at our own beliefs and some of us were able to see something that was weird, we had lots of form but in many lacked substance. We talked about love and were strong promoters of it at some levels but not at others. There was some form and substance at some levels but not at others. There were certain behaviors promoted at some levels and some people but discouraged at other levels and people. There was not equality but distinctions among peers. Some were providers and givers while others were users and takers. When some of us were clear in seeing how churches were so "systematic" we fail to see how systematic the family had become. So the family became a religion just like any other church.
Some of us left as a result of this realization, others realized it after they were kicked out or are in the process of realizing it. But religion is a matter of structures, it is a matter of forms and procedures, it is not about substance. Substance is our own relationship with our creator, a God we witnessed about, a belief we had about something bigger and better than us. That substance, the contact we had with this being, was what we developed and maintained in our own closets, that is what I would call spirituality.
I agree with you that spirituality was defined for us also but there is a huge difference in it with other definitions. Spirituality involved a force outside of the group, it onvolved direct participation of that entity and it would shape our own thoughts as we interacted in an action known as prayer. It was a place where no brainwashing could happen unless we see prayer only as a psychological act. I do not. And I call that spirituality.
In that sense, Berg might have been spiritual, just like you say, but his contacts were not just with that deity, or God and because of that I would not call that spiritual but spiritist. Perhaps the first turning point for us, as members and captive audience for his propaganda, was Madamme M, when he introduced the concept of spiritism disguising it as something innocuous. I am not sure if the letters about the Godesses or Abrahim would really count as such but in any case, they all appeared about the same time.
So, the way I have reconciled these concepts is by expressely separating a connection with a supreme being who is larger than us and has control over the material and spiritual world, whom we call God, and those connections that some people claim to have with dead people (Saul was concemmed for doing just that) or some sort of other types of spiritual being - I'd call that spiritism.
Spiritualism and spiritsm are not separate and different in the Family but they aret wo different things. Spiritualism reflects the contact of human beings with God and it is encouraged by His Word and His Holy Spirit. Spiritism includes inclinations and actions to contact other spirits and it is a sin in the eyes of the Lord God.
In all these disctinctions, to complete these definitions, religion just reflects the formalities, mainly social, to engage in activities related to either beliefs or ideologies that may have or not any relationship with God or the spiritual.
And I have to run back to work - keep in mind that this is just my opinion and worth a lot to me but not necessarily a penny to others. And that's OK because we have to make up our own minds.