Societal Transformation=Spiritual Soup

The Movement to Water Down & "Woke-ify" Religious Traditions

This article is Part 1 of a 4-article series that was originally published in The Ohio Press Network.

Part 2: One Nation Under “Mob”…with “Spirituality” & “Democracy” for All

Part 3: Social Emotional Learning—Building a Nation of”Nones” for the New American Religion

Part 4: Social Emotional Learning is Unconstitutional—A State-Sanctioned Religion

What is the relationship between spirituality and democracy, or in America’s case, a Republic? That answer, long held to be that church and state should be separated to protect society from state-sanctioned beliefs is now under question by nefarious actors hell-bent on infusing their brand of spirituality into every system of society so they can deem any religious group with beliefs that don’t align with theirs a “threat to democracy.”

Spirituality vs. Religion

Unlike religion, which is structured around a belief system with a specific doctrine that guides the way (Bible, Quran, Bhagavad Gita, etc.), spirituality denotes a broad concept of a belief in something beyond the self. A person can be both spiritual and religious at the same time, but there are a growing number of individuals who are classifying themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”  These people, referred to as “Nones”, do not affiliate with any religion, and often find belonging by dabbling in a variety of practices from multiple faiths to find their purpose and meaning in life.  That doesn’t mean that Nones have no belief system.  Often, thought-worlds, such as Patriotism, or Environmentalism, which are usually moral concerns with spiritual underpinnings, become a part of their life’s creed.

Diluted Doctrine & Religious Homogeneity

The Fetzer Institute reported on this rise of “Nones” in their 2015 report, Where We Belong: Mapping American Religious Innovation (ter Kuile, C., Thurston, A.), which surveyed the changing context of religion in America and examined different denominations and communities working in an altered context from their traditional faiths.  One of the seven key themes that these spiritual communities shared was that their “experience of truth supersedes doctrine.”  An example of this was the group The Neighborhood Halaqa, which attracts ‘un-mosqued’ Muslims and which focuses conversation on the “lived experience of Islam rather than doctrinal teachings.” Many of the groups like these mentioned in the document either practice a watered-down version of their communal faith or are a conglomeration of individuals with varying values and beliefs that come together with “no doctrine, no deity, and no sacred texts.”  Fetzer expressed their interest in supporting this rising tide of millennials whose “generational shift is fundamentally challenging traditional forms of religious community and theology” to advance the “emerging global movement toward a spiritual transformation”—a spiritual transformation that seeks to sacrifice the purity of religious beliefs on the altar of “equity.”

The Convening

Fetzer made plans to bring the over 40 religious innovators mentioned in their document together to collaborate on this work of transformation.  There were several gatherings, in fact, one of whose 2020 document detailing the event, Shared Spiritual Heritage: Convening, Dialogue and Field Building, shed light on the real “work” they were doing, which looked more like a spiritual struggle session than a collaboration.  Rabbis working in “innovative Jewish communities,” Catholic sisters, seminary faculty, denominational leaders, interspiritual and multi-faith teachers, and nonreligious seekers were hosted at Fetzer’s Seasons retreat center for three days of dialogue “focused on the pressing need to dismantle systems of oppression, de-colonize religious and spiritual traditions, and lift up voices that have been silenced by white supremacy and other forms of oppression.”  Suggestions for de-centering whiteness in the emerging sector of spiritual transformation included “a focus on POC-led formation spaces, creating space for queer and trans POC (QTPOC) voices to be heard, and convening majority non-white gatherings to explore these themes more deeply.”  Discussions at the convening examined themes related to critical theory such as appropriation and power dynamics as a part of the process of figuring out how spiritual practices could be translated from their regular faith traditions to meet the needs of diverse spiritual seekers such as “nones” or the “spiritual but not religious.” Quoting Diana Butler Bass, the document states that “Traditional forms of faith are being replaced by a plethora of new spiritual, ethical, and nonreligious choices.  If it is not the end of religion, it certainly seems to be the end of what was conventionally understood to be American religion.” 

Fetzer Institute (2020), Shared Spiritual Heritage: Convening, Dialogue and Field Building

A New American Religion

At the 2017 Global Purpose Summit, which was sponsored by The Fetzer Institute, Xiaoan Li, their Senior Program Officer, gave a passionate speech on “Healing the Heart of American Democracy” using this aforementioned spiritual transformation.  He asked the question, “What is the relationship between spirituality and democracy?” A panel discussion the next day was focused on this topic, and even included musings on the merits of reconsidering the separation of church and state.  Cassandra Vieten, Director of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) brought up “how a re-infusion of explicit spiritual values could be an antidote to some of the problems of democracy.”  What problems of democracy is she referring to?   You and your Judeo-Christian values.  It was clear that their version of “spirituality” was not holding hands and building bridges with fellow Americans with diverse religious viewpoints when another panelist, Drew Dellinger, declared “anti-racism” to be a spiritual path.  He emphatically stated that there is no wiggle room on core principles such as “racial justice and gender justice” to which Vieten quipped, “Yes, some things are wrong.”  Earlier in the conversation, Dellinger argued that they “could not have a realistic discussion about democracy without talking about capitalism, misogyny, patriarchy, white supremacy, systemic racial oppression, settler colonialism…That’s the context in which this conversation has to take place” because the framers of the constitution ”didn’t found a democracy.”

Reimagining Religion

Vieten ventured to ask once more, “How do we reintegrate spiritual values into education, into healthcare, into business, into society…without falling into the trap of a corrupt, dominant worldview that doesn’t serve all.”  One can only guess she is again referring to the Judeo Christian values that America was founded on, but her question about a dominant worldview is a valid one.  What happens when this watered down “inclusive” form of spirituality becomes what they are infusing into every system of society and will be asserted as the “correct” worldview? 

It could be argued that much of what many people believe politically is largely based upon their religious beliefs and the doctrine to which they subscribe their beliefs to.  That is why citizens take such strong opposing viewpoints on particular political issues.  Take abortion, for example, in which someone’s stance on pro-life or pro-choice is determined on when they believe life begins. Same goes for the transgender issue, because many religious traditions believe based on the Scriptures that there are only two immutable genders. Folks like the Fetzer Institute and their partners desire religious pluralism. Will that look like freedom of religion with no judgment or more like state-sanctioned religion?   Will citizens who hold to their religious doctrines be labeled as “extremist”?

“To increase the traditions’
positive contribution to
life-affirming personal and
societal transformation,
the movement must
support those within each
tradition, and particularly
those leaders within each
tradition, who are trying
to shift the tradition’s
center of gravity away from
extremist and life-denying
dogma toward the direct,
transformative experience
of Spirit.”

-Fetzer Institute, Theory of Change Document

It seems so. Read Part 2 to find out how our federal government is involved.

Lisa Logan is the host of the YouTube Channel Parents of Patriots and author of the Substack Education Manifesto.  As a wife, mother and patriot, she has made it her mission to expose the sinister agenda behind Social Emotional Learning programs to save our children and the future of our country.