The sun of this century sets on an America that is both connected and disconnected, where publishing is on the rise and literacy on the decline, where we blame the government, belittle the priest, mistrust the police and nitpick the visionary. Despairing of everyone, we turn inward. From a world outside so full of darkness and chaos, we turn to the world inside to seek light and harmony. We call this world inside the world of spirituality. We are careful not to call it religion, for we have lost faith in it along with everything else.
Religion represents unenforceable taboos that lead only to neurosis.
Religion brings us televangelists with friendly Howdy-Doody faces and paranoid Charles Manson eyes, the worst of whom lead their followers, unflinchingly, toward suicide and genocide. But worse, and far more damnable than all the above, we reject religion because it bores us, with all its ancient rites, redundant sermons and updates on building programs. Instead of being a better alternative to culture at large, the church often reflects the very worst of culture. We say we are appalled by racism, but Sunday mornings are arguably the most segregated hours of the week. Church growth experts instruct us in ways of successfully marketing religion to the so-called unchurched, but the mega churches that spring up in the wake of this movement seldom reflect diversity of race, class or even theology.