It’s easy to place these folks within the ranks of the “spiritual but not religious” whom Lillian Daniel likes to scold. There’s some truth to this: to the extent that my hippie-Marine friend has any kind of spiritual practice, it’s tied up with the yoga she teaches. The English woman derives more meaning from U2 lyrics than scripture, a habit I dare not tease her about for fear of having something thrown at my head.
We are also told, particularly by committed atheists, that the nones represent the rise of a post- or even anti-religious society. There’s some truth to this as well, but only some. Of my five closest friends from high school, only one would attend a church if he could find one that suited him nearby. Yet four of them wanted me to officiate at their weddings. (The other got married before I entered ministry.) Only one is antipathetic to faith; the others simply shrug their shoulders at it. Yet they””and all the others I have mentioned””would have no qualms about claiming me as their pastor, as though that were some kind of subversive triumph. Perhaps I should cut down on the swearing.
Finally, we often hear that the nones are people who have left””or been pushed out of”” organized religion….
I’m not quite sure I get what it is he’s actually trying to [i]say[/i]. Is that he’s a “none” now and that it’s not so bad because he can sleep in on Sundays? What shone through to me most is not the (perhaps valuable) notes on his friends, but the pain over his own ouster.