Churchgoing in Britain has fallen from 50% regular attendance in 1960 to a monthly figure of about 15%. The figures are higher for Roman Catholic Christians in USA, but new figures still show a decline in weekly attendance from 44% in 1987 to 31% now. What's going on?
As Winston Churchill once said, "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics!" You can make of them what you will, but one interpretation might be that these figures signal increasing spiritual maturity. People are growing up!
Survey of US Catholics, from 'USA Today' 25 October
How does this correlate with spiritual maturity? According to a new paradigm described in The Psychology of Spirituality, a central argument involves people being motivated from adolescence onward by two common, apparently opposing, drives:
1. Conforming to a cohesive group, and
2. Being independent.
Conformity and belonging bring security. Being independent, thinking and acting for yourself, taking responsibility, means stepping outside the comfort zone.
Influential human groups are not only based on religious (or non-religious) affiliation. We also identify ourselves according to place of birth, nationality, where you live now, race, primary language (including accent or dialect), sexual orientation and preferences, social class, and political persuasion.
Strict conformity according to one or more of these categories is what partisanship, even to the point of fundamentalism, is about. Psychologically, this is immature, deemed so because it leads to unnecessary suffering. In other words, it is dangerous. The destructive principle at work is exclusivity: "You're either in or out, with us or against us." Worse still... "If once you were with us and now you're against us... Watch out!"
Rigid group boundaries result in inflexible opinions of the ‘right or wrong,' ‘good or bad,' ‘win or lose' type. ‘Either/or' thinking leads to division, rivalry and conflict. There is no striving for mutual understanding and tolerance. Frequently—and tragically—these attitudes masquerade as virtue, particularly loyalty, yet they result increasingly in inequality, discord and misery.
Don't get me wrong. Immaturity, far from being reprehensible, is entirely natural and normal. As we leave childhood and progress through adolescence, we cannot help but be influenced to conform by strong pressures of social conditioning. A relative lack of experience of other ways of being, seeing and experiencing the world leaves us vulnerable, having to rely on parent and authority figures for opinions, values and guidance. In time and with experience, perhaps when first leaving home, seeing things different elsewhere, we start asking questions. When we experience challenges to our cherished beliefs, and personal suffering as a result of conforming to a group identity, questions like "Is my group always right?" naturally arise.
Under these circumstances, we can either revert and take refuge with the group, becoming even more rigid in adherence to its edicts and values, or we can start thinking things through for ourselves. A new level of maturity begins now; but note how we often start by forming our new views negatively, in reaction and opposition to those of our former group. We have not yet moved forward enough.
Sometimes we start by looking for a new group to replace the one we've rejected (or been expelled from). New groups, though, are also potentially divisive; and it is hard to find a match for newly-emerging personal ideals. Eventually, though, after perhaps quite a long and lonely time, maybe first exploring different avenues and worldly goals and distractions (money, sex, intoxicants, fame and power among them), making any number of false starts and re-starts, we mature to another level still. In doing so, we discover our true selves and where we genuinely belong—as an integral part of humanity, nature and the cosmos—seamlessly inter-connected with everyone and everything else. This is enlightenment. This is spiritual maturity... And if you do not yet know what that means, I am bold enough to say that, like many, you are probably still on the journey towards it.
Returning to the beginning, Christians are increasingly thinking for themselves and daring to challenge their leaders, and we can take this as a sign of spiritual progress, as a necessary, if uncomfortable step away from certainty and security towards equality, in the ultimate search for peace and contentment. But the process of maturing psychologically and spiritually does not depend upon which religious or non-religious, racial, social or political group a person starts out with. And this, too, offers hope. People everywhere share a deep-seated drive that eventually trumps self-interest: to live according to spiritual values like trust, honesty, humility, kindness, generosity, patience, perseverance, and (because you need it) courage.
Morality concerns in China, from 'USA Today' 25 October
When religious, political and other social leaders fail to exemplify and encourage such virtues, people start thinking and acting for themselves. Witness this year's ‘Arab spring', what's happened in Russia, and what's maybe happening in China (see the adjacent
USA Today headline photo). In western democracies, people are questioning not only church and political leaders, but also bankers, commercial leaders and the media, who now appear to set and control many of our primary goals, goals that are worldly and material, rather than spiritual.
When such leaders appear self-serving; when they do not seem to know what they are doing, or cannot predict the outcome of their interventions; when they fail to agree and split into rival factions; we, the people, are obliged to start thinking for ourselves, and to watch out for each other.
This is fine. Despite the uncertainty and suffering involved, I remain optimistic. Even the most timid will surely catch on and catch up eventually. This is how social evolution works. As I said earlier, "People are growing up!"
Copyright Larry Culliford
Larry's books include ‘The Psychology of Spirituality', ‘Love, Healing & Happiness' and (as Patrick Whiteside) ‘The Little Book of Happiness' and ‘Happiness: The 30 Day Guide' (personally endorsed by HH The Dalai Lama).
