you can call me anything...

just don't call me religious.

Next to "being green" the next big fad in American Christianity is the label spiritual. I once taught a class (a terrible, terrible class) called "I'm Spiritual, not Religious: finding God in spite of the Church." For a long time I thought that this was a new trend, until this week. I was re-confronted with Paul's words to the people of Athens.

"Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way."

You can almost hear the sarcasm in Paul's voice.
And then you can hear all the air being sucked out of the Areopagus at once.
How dare he call us religious!

I'm sure it wasn't new when Paul said it in the mid-to-late 30s - but being called "religious" is still considered by many to be an insult. It carries with it the baggage of terrible things done in the name of religion (or worse yet in the name of God). To be religious seems to mean that you've bought into the system of oppression. To be religious is to be considered closed-minded, which in contemporary circles means that one is labeled the dreaded "exclusive" toward the other (by race, gender, creed, sexual preference, etc.)

Merriam-Webster Online defines religious as
1 relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity : religious attitudes>
2 of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances
3 scrupulously and conscientiously faithful

So, if this isn't new, what are we to do about it? I think we are called to reframe it. What if we were to retake the word religious? What would it look like to be live into its first definition and remove ourselves from the damage done by definitions two and three? What if being "religious" meant that we were doing the best we can to live our lives devoted to the way of Jesus rather than the doctrine, discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church (or your church of choice)?

I imagine it'll take a lot of work, but if we were all to give up our religion and take on a religious life we might not stop at retaking the word, but in the end, might take the world and make it the Kingdom of God.