Are we all religious now?

The website, The Immanent Frame, posted an interview with Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, who is Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Law and Religion Program at SUNY-Buffalo, looking at the failure of the courts to deal adequately with the realities of lived religion in America.

Let me get you thinking by including two quotes. One from the interview and one from a previous post written by Professor Sullivan.

From the interview, which can be found at: http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2009/08/11/religion-takes-the-stand/,

One of your posts on The Immanent Frame you title with the claim, “We are all religious now.” Can you explain what that can mean, for instance, to the fifteen percent of Americans who claim to have no religious affiliation, or to the New Atheists?
Yes, I mean it to refer to the phenomenon I will be describing in my new book, a new openness to seeing Americans as naturally “faith-based,” enabled, I believe, by a convergence between a broad range of humanistic critiques of scientistic understandings of the person, social scientific and biological; social and political movements that originated in the mid-twentieth century; and a contemporaneous shift in religious authority and anthropology from the church to the individual. The exclusivity of materialist/medicalized understandings of the entire range of human capabilities and experience, as well as ecclesiastical capacity to insist on orthodoxy and particularity, are both fast eroding in the face of these changes. It’s a next step in the radical disestablishment of religion in this country. This shift toward locating authority in the individual means that it’s much easier for people to move among religious communities, religious ideas, and religious practices in a much more ambiguous way, a way that is less determined by someone outside oneself. If people want to call themselves atheists, that’s fine with me, and I’m not telling them they’re not atheists. What I’m saying is that I think it is becoming socially, politically, and legally the case that people are understanding themselves in terms of a new revival of a holistic image of the human being as, in some sense, basically spiritual. I think that many people who would not call themselves religious would also at least assent to that notion.

And, then, from the referenced post, We are All Religious Now, which can be found at: http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2007/11/27/we-are-all-religious-now/, and references a number of specific cases, is a comment on an opinion written by Justice Souter.

Souter’s dissent in Hein hearkens back to the Flast era, insisting that religion is special, that individual conscience must be protected by a high wall of separation, and that James Madison ought to still rule: “favoritism for religion,” says Souter, “‘sends the . . . message to . . . nonadherents’ that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community.”

Souter’s is increasingly a minority voice. We are all religious now. As a leading architect of integrating spirituality into medicine says, “our belief [is] that there is a spiritual dimension in every person’s life, even in those who deny that there is.”

So, do you think that, with a redefintion of religion to emphasize the individual dimension and not the institutional one, that all Americans, even those who would deny such identification, are religious?

2nd Verse of "Church Conflict"

Not too long ago, I remarked on the conflict that struck New York's Riverside Church and resulted in the resignation of its newly installed minister. Now, stories are emerging about conflict at Coral Ridge Presbyterian with its newly called minister.

The link to the full story is: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fort-lauderdale/sfl-coral-ridge-081009,0,1694944.story. The details are quite familiar to anyone who has ever made a study of such conflict.

The lead to the article sums up the story: Internal divisions at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church burst into the open this past weekend as six members were ordered to stay off the premises.

The six have called for the ouster of the Rev. W. Tullian Tchividjian, saying he is deserting the heritage of his revered predecessor, the Rev D. James Kennedy. In reply, the Fort Lauderdale church has accused them of spreading rumors and disrupting church unity. Among the six is Kennedy's daughter, Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy.

Stresses are common whenever a longtime pastor is replaced, observers say. But with a huge, successful church with long-entrenched traditions - and a new pastor nearly two generations younger - the effects are heightened.

The conclsion to the article is on target: To George B. Thompson Jr., of Atlanta, a specialist in church merger problems, the Coral Ridge ills are cultural. "We in society don't understand the complexity of organizations, religious or secular. People like Tchividjian could be doing what they think is right - even what they thought they were asked to do - and it still blows up."

Riverside and Coral Ridge are at two ends of the spectrum theologically. Riverside long known for its liberal ministers and liberal stances. Coral Ridge reached national prominence under D. James Kennedy as a politically and theologically conservative church. Yet, the storyline for each in this current controversy is remarkably the same - a new minister doing things differently than his predecessor sparks outrage among a small group of parishioners who then conspire to 'boot him out.' According to some statistics, 25% of all ministers will be forced to resign or retire. In the vast majority of cases, this effort is orchestrated by a small group of people in the church. Further, when a church does it once, it frequently does it more than once.

This revolving door for ministers is one of the tragedies of the contemporary Christian church in America. The most effective ministry by a pastor usually comes after she or he has been in a church for 10+ years. So, the church cuts off its nose to spite its face. The disruption in ministry that occurs when the church has to undertake a new search process has long-lasting effects on the life of the church.

Perhaps, someday, we will learn better. Till then, groups like Ministering To Ministers provides emergency care for the ousted pastor and family.