To Fight a Spiritual War You Need Spiritual Weapons
The real battle for the moral vision of society takes place not at the once every few years ballot box, but for the hearts and minds of our neighbors. This is a spiritual battle.
I was raised Christian, but like many in my generation, I drifted away. All of the corrupt televangelists and science-ignoring fundamentalists soured me on the faith. In recent years, I’ve returned. My approach is, in part, based on caring less about other people’s thoughts. A boon of advanced middle age.
Some “true believers” will look down on you because you don’t take the metaphor literally. Some turned off by abuses of religion will question you because they can’t get past the literalist to acknowledge the truth behind the metaphor. Perhaps finding enough of the truth elsewhere.
Joseph Campbell taught me a lot about religion. Including the idea that all religions are true, but none of them are literal. The value is always to look at the meaning behind the metaphor. Now, when I take notes during a sermon, I find parallels among the topics in Christianity, Buddhism, and psychology. All domains I know much more about than I did in my youth. I’m sure if I were more well-versed in Judaism, Islam, or other faiths, I could find the throughline there as well.
Topics like religion and morality matter right now because we are in a spiritual war in America and the world. One expressed through our politics.
Paula White, our President’s spiritual advisor, is a prosperity gospel advocate. This abomination of faith preaches that wealth is a sign of God’s favor. All while their hand is out for your donation to their wealth. All you have to do is donate, and you’ll be allowed into heaven and rich in the meantime.
In a land founded on freedom of and freedom from religion, preference is being given to “protecting Christian and Jewish faith” as it aligns with policy goals and political control. At the same time, people who do not ascribe to either religion are looked down on, at best. You ascribe to Atheism or Islam? Your faith will be talked about as if people should fear you because of it. Right, Mamdani?
We’re killing people without proof around the world and bragging about it. We are abducting people without granting them the rights to due process. We are taking away the right to free speech, but only on some topics. We are talking about humans as animals, as a disease, to justify treating them like it. We are giving special favors to the rich while at the same time, we’re not feeding the hungry, we’re not providing healthcare to the sick, and we aren’t helping people in need when disaster strikes. All while our politicians are lying about what happens in these programs, as they boastfully claim to be good Christians.
That’s a spiritual crisis. A crisis of morality and ethics in how we treat our fellow humans. There is undoubtedly plenty of legal crisis, but at the heart of it all is a spiritual problem.
Being a part of the solution is simple. The first step is to lead with love. Take care of yourselves. Take care of your neighbors. In today’s crowded world, with communication spanning the globe in a hot second, we are all neighbors. Love for one another is at the core of spiritual practices around the world.
To counter their facade of religiosity, we need to speak on those terms. Call them out on their hypocrisy and crass abuse of the authority of religion. If you are not well-versed in Christianity but looking for a good book to speak to Christians on their terms, I highly recommend Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang.
If that’s not your game, whatever the basis of your personal moral or ethical code works. A little work in Google or your favorite LLM will likely lead you to a section of the bible that delivers the same message. This allows you to speak to your values in a language they speak.
A lot of philosophy and psychology backs up the core concepts of religion. That can work as well; however, it is a more challenging path. The effectiveness of persuasion in religion is two-fold. First, we are told not to question what we are told. Second, it is primarily story-based. Simple facts and figures don’t have the same impact as a good story. It’s hard to imagine yourself as a number making up a bigger number. It’s easy to see yourself as another human being, either the hero or the victim of a story.
The world needs positive spiritual messages right now. People are struggling with the rapid change in society. Beyond material struggles, many are struggling to find meaning and purpose in their lives. People looking to exploit these problems are not shy about using whatever prejudice or blind faith they can to serve their own interests.
Whatever your faith, moral philosophy, or belief structure is, don’t shy away from being a visible example of love for one another, in action and word.