Spiritual…But Not Shallow (or, How the Nones are Coming of Age)

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stones with message: love, faith, hopeMy friend Michael Ellick, the founder of Occupy Faith, told me recently that he believes people are beginning to weary of the “spiritual-not-religious” position that has become almost reflexive for many Americans on the question of religious affiliation. The trend has peaked, Michael said, and people are looking for something more. They don’t want to go back to the religion of their parents or grandparents, but they’ve wised up to the fact that they need something real to replace it, whether you call it a religion or not. “Spiritual, but not religions…but not shallow,” was how Michael put it. “That’s what people are looking for now.”

The wave of secularization that swept the globe after World War II might have taken longer to reach the shores of God-fearing Christian America, but when it broke, it broke hard, leaving […]