“Don’t worry, everything happens for a reason. Don’t feel bad, this must be part of God’s plan.”
While well-meaning, phrases like these often serve to deny or minimize people’s pain.
John Welwood calls this form of avoidance “spiritual bypassing” – when people use spiritual ideas or practices to sidestep discomfort.
Whether it’s the frequent use of spiritual clichés that overemphasize divine control while minimizing human agency or a hyper-emphasis on worship or personal piety to the neglect of social justice, spirituality is commonly used to bypass difficulty. When religion serves as a source of comfort while shielding people from the causes of suffering, it functions as what Karl Marx referred to as an “opium of the people.”
In a time of poly-crisis, what does a healthy, engaged, and empowering spirituality look like? Theologian Walter Burghardt offers a helpful way to understand the role of religion when he suggests that spirituality can empower us to take a “long, loving look at the real.”
Spirituality can ground us in something or someone larger than ourselves so we might face life, in all its stunning beauty and crushing brutality, with joy and courage.
We all need resources that help us take an unflinching look at the stark social, political, and environmental challenges before us. At its best, spirituality can help root us in a loving, transformative, and compassionate presence so we might take a brave look at the underlying trauma, broken systems, and unjust structures that prevent the world from flourishing. Amen.
