"Spirituality"

I was reading a piece by Mark Steyn, columnist found in many different newspapers. This paragraph caught my eye:

Motoring through Gloucestershire a couple of Sunday nights back, I caught a Radio Four programme called Something Understood, with Mark Tully, one of those kinda-sorta-religious shows which seem to be as far as the BBC’s so-called Religious Affairs Unit is prepared to go these days. Its theme that week was the great revival of religion and ‘spirituality’, terms which were used by Mr Tully pretty interchangeably. It’s true that at the moment the shine seems to be off atheism, and many folks find secular society vaguely insufficient. But religion — i.e., Islam, Judaism, Christianity, etc. — isn’t quite the same as ‘spirituality’, a mostly bogus category created for people who want to feel good about themselves without having to get up early on Sunday or give up activities to which they’re partial but most Churches aren’t. ‘Spirituality’ is pretty thin gruel next to your average ‘organised religion’, and my bet is the organised guys will win in the end. But in the meantime we have to put up with a lot of narcissist cults designed to make unsatisfied secular Westerners feel good about themselves.

I don't know much about Radio Four's "Something Understood," nor much about the BBC in general. But I like Steyn's characterization of the use of the phrase "spirituality." I've always been suspicious of it because I've heard it used in so many ways, relating to so many thing -- from traditional Christianity all the way to crystals, aromatheraphy and yoga "spirituality." I don't like the word.

In fact, I don't much care for the term "religion" when speaking of Christinity either. The term "faith" is better, but not perfect. I'm struggling to come up with a word that best means "belief in an immutable Truth." But even that might not do it, because there's an element of trust in addition to belief, and the simple word trust doesn't convey the proper depth of commitment. Perhaps I'm just overthinking things. :-)

I'm in Phoenix right now, going home to Tucson later tonight.

Hope all is well with you!