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Spouting Thomas's avatar

Thanks, this is interesting.

1. For what it's worth, in my specific context I've heard a few highly religious Evangelicals (including a pastor) describe themselves as "not very spiritual". What they mean by this is "not very attuned to Pentecostal-style spiritual warfare", i.e., not inclined to see angels and demons everywhere. Which often implies they were once surrounded by a religious context that WAS very spiritual in that sense.

2. A stereotype is that "spiritual, not religious" is a highly female-coded worldview, just as atheism is more male-coded. I wish that could have been tested here.

3. One thing that's surprising to me here is that these stats show that there are apparently a lot of weekly and weekly+ attenders (at least half of them) who say that their political views are not very shaped by their religion OR their spirituality. Perhaps this just illustrates that I live in a culture war bubble and most people, even the highly religious, are more politically focused on pragmatic "kitchen table issues".

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Justin Rasmussen's avatar

Very interesting. I just read an article by John Swinton and Stephen Pattison subtitled "towards a thin, vague, and useful understanding of spirituality in nursing care" that reflects on the utility of conceptualizing spirituality indirectly as an emergent idea that names absences and resistance. They feel it names an important experience in the way people relate to healthcare, even if it can't be associated with a cohesive set of practices and beliefs.

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