Struggling With Spirituality in the Trump Era
…and how there are too many Christians believing rather than seeing.
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.” — Albert Einstein
Lately, I’ve had a bad case of déjà vu.
I don’t know how else to describe it.
Over the past week (it’s only been a week??), Trump has continued to yell into the “Twitterverse,” saying things like…
Have we entered a different dimension? WTF is happening right now? Since when can you just say stuff that some people wish were true, without a sliver of evidence, and have people listen to you?
I present evidence A: Purity Culture.
“What I am recommending to the unmarried person, therefore, comes straight out of the Word: Stay out of bed unless you go there alone! I know that advice is difficult to put into practice today. But I didn’t make the rules. I’m just passing them along. God’s moral laws are not designed to oppress us or deprive us of pleasure. They are there to protect us from the devastation of sin, including disease, heartache, divorce, and spiritual death. Abstinence before marriage and fidelity afterward is the Creator’s own plan, and no one has devised a way to improve on it.” James C. Dobson, Life on the Edge: A You Adult’s Meaningful Guide to a Meaningful Future
To be clear, the Bible presents no clear directive about sex before marriage. The verses used to defend this position are suspect, at best.
Here is a list of verses often used to support bans on premarital sex, from the perspective of someone who believes in abstinence, for those interested.
You don’t make the rules that put women’s value in their virginity? Really, Dobson? You sure about that?
Evidence B: Homosexuality.
Heterosexual union reaches into and creates the next generation. To establish a sexual relationship without any interest in or openness to babies is contrary to God’s intention for such relationships.
Source: Focus on the Family
In addressing the issue of infertility, in this article by Glenn Stanton, he says that it’s the intention that counts.
Evidence C: Evolution.
Of all the major religious groups in the U.S., white evangelical Protestants are the most likely to reject evolution. — Pew Research Center
This is what happens when you desire answers, a rule book, which explains ever mystery in the world.
The fact that Christians who read the Bible literally tend to mistrust science is well-established.
In fact, isn’t it true that any type of spiritual belief is not grounded in fact?
I’m a fan of Brené Brown, a psychologist who has risen to prominence for her research in shame and vulnerability. In her book The Gifts of Imperfection, she notes that throughout her investigation, she found an embrace of “spirituality” to be a common theme among people who lives, what she identifies as, “wholeheartedly.”
“…recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose to our lives.”
But, spirituality has no evidence. There is no evidence of a power that is greater than us that also connects us. There’s certainly no scientific evidence of it.
As someone who is actively deconstructing the roots of her faith, lately I’ve found myself asking the question: Is any type of spirituality, including religious belief, dangerous?
Are our biases as humans simply too strong, that if we believe something so strongly, we can actively hurt society, as Trump has been doing in his Twitter storm?
In the throes of the election, a former coworker of mine posted the following on Facebook:
My coworker used this meme as a defense of her open support of Trump.
Do we need any more evidence that this year to know that humans are capable of swaying their minds any direction that suits them?
It seems that giving our minds any freedom in regards to the hidden nature of the world is opening up the possibility of real societal damage…right?
In fact, there have been incredibly smart scientists who have pointed to a spiritual reality, like Albert Einstein, who said:
“Your question [the existence of God] is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. I am not an Atheist. I do not know if I can define myself as a Pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. May I not reply with a parable? The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations” (G. S. Viereck, Glimpses of the Great (Macauley, New York, 1930) p. 372–373.).
I love the use of this parable, of the child lost in a library that is much too complicated for him or her to understand.
It seems to me that the role of religions are to point to those books and say, “THIS is the answer.” The problem comes when we start throwing the books at each other and yelling and condemning those other interpreters to hell.
Carl Sagan took a similar stance:
“I am not an atheist. An atheist is someone who has compelling evidence that there is no Judeo-Christian-Islamic God. I am not that wise, but neither do I consider there to be anything approaching adequate evidence for such a god. Why are you in such a hurry to make up your mind? Why not simply wait until there is compelling evidence?”
I love that question: “Why are you in such a hurry to make up your mind?” What’s the rush?
For both of these famous scientists, the existence of a god, or spiritual reality, was something unknown, and therefore, they left their minds open.
Stephen Hawking, on the other hand, was a staunch Atheist, once telling ABC news:
“One can’t prove that God doesn’t exist. But science makes God unnecessary. … The laws of physics can explain the universe without the need for a creator.”
In essence, Hawking takes the stance of “we have answers, so why God, when we don’t have an answer for him?”
Charles Darwin, a scientist who Christians love to hate, said of God:
“I may say that the impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for the existence of God; but whether this is an argument of real value, I have never been able to decide.”
In 2009, Pew Research did a study which revealed that scientists, as a whole, are much less likely to believe in God. In fact,
“According to the poll, just over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. By contrast, 95% of Americans believe in some form of deity or higher power, according to a survey of the general public conducted by the Pew Research Center in July 2006.”
In essence, it appears that people who rely on fact and scientific processes are much less likely to believe in God, or in a higher power in general.
I suppose, if you have to choose a rule book, science is a pretty darn good one to choose.
While I appreciate the ambiguity and compassion-filled definition of spirituality that Brené Brown presents, how can we not simply see it as the other, more timid side, of the same coin?
I, again, want to bring in the quote I put at the beginning:
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.” — Albert Einstein, “The World As I See It”
To me, spirituality is mystery.
I have decided to challenge myself, in my journey of deconstruction, to only see mystery where it actually exists.
As a writer with a background in English Literature, I understand the power and importance of stories. And, I believe that as humans, we have a right to create our stories and our reality.
So, I have hope that there is a place for religion and spirituality that is grounded in reality.
As Brené Brown points out, spirituality gives us purpose and connection. But there is a difference between finding purpose and connection in mystery and finding that connection within black and white literalism.
Black and white literalism blinds us from encountering the true beauty of the mysterious.
The consequences, at times, can even be death.
We’re seeing that right now with COVID. Check out this article on NPR that relates an ICU nurse’s experience with patient regret.
She [Mobley] says she encounters “multiple patients” on “every shift” who acknowledge they didn’t take the warnings seriously.
Wanting something to be true, never makes it true. And that distinction is more important now than ever.
Amy is a Spanish-English translator, ESL teacher in training, and former HS Literature Teacher. She’s also an “exvangelical” missionary kid. In addition to writing on Medium about personal growth and religion, her work has been published on Scary Mommy and Motherwell Magazine.
