Rhetoric Race and Religion
For a long time, American religion has been attempting to grapple in one way or another with the category of religion that usually falls under the heading of “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR). I can remember hearing Jim Wallis speak on a number of occasions and refer to it as “America’s fastest growing religion.” As an identifier, it seems to represent the point of view of someone who recognizes the value of religious sentiment, and perhaps a belief in some transcendent reality, but refuses to believe that such a reality is well-represented by any one religious tradition, or indeed, any religious tradition at all, in a satisfactory way. The spiritual but not religious person often seems to be the sort that would like to be religious, if it weren’t for the way relgions and religious people so often act.
And among more or less liberal religious folks, this has been widely accepted as a legitimate stance. Sure, among ourselves we may comment about the problems of individualistic religion, lack of community or accountability, and the subjectivism and narcissism that are risked by such a stance. We may make reference to what sociologist Robert Bellah referred to as “Shiela-ism” — the quintessentially American religion that is shared with no one but ourselves. But at the same time, we have not, generally, gone out of our way to pick fights on this front.
Until recently that is.
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