Choices

I’ve been thinking lately about the evolving spiritual and religious landscape, and more and more come back to the presence of choice. Choice strips us of illusions that are easily carried in days where religion has the cultural power to impose the facades of faith on the crowd. Instead, in the face of genuine choice, whether or not we believe/trust in Jesus becomes something that matters as much externally as it does internally.

"Of course, some people do not like choices; it makes their head hurt. Coffee, black. They always order the same thing. But when presented with new or different choices, many people take the chance and pick—in amazingly creative and innovative ways, which usually threaten those still following the old paths. In religious circles, choice is often viewed negatively as a violation of tradition, a break with custom, rebellion against God or the church, heresy: “We’ve never done it that way before.” Critics assail religious choice as selfish, individualistic, consumerist, narcissistic, navel-gazing, disloyal, thoughtless. But, if for a moment, you strip away all the judgmental religious language, it is just choice. The economic, social, and political world in which we live has opened up the possibility for eighty-two thousand choices at the coffee shop and probably about ten times that many when it comes to worshipping God and loving your neighbor. Some will choose well, others badly. Some will choose thoughtfully, others not so much. Some choose something new, others choose what they have always known. In the end, however, everybody chooses. Contemporary spirituality is a little like that line at the coffee shop. Everybody makes a selection. Even if you only want black coffee."― from Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening by Diana Butler Bass