Hi Don,
Thanks for your summary of that sobering article. I suspect many people who think of themselves as "spiritual" are members of organized religions, and they are inclined to view other religions (and people who are members of other religions) as somewhat inferior or less in touch with what is really important. On some level, they would prefer that members of other religions abandon those religions and join their religion. And they may be attached to simple dogmas that are particular to their religion.
I think it would be interesting to conduct research that would probe people's feelings about spirituality and membership in an organized religion, hopefully doing it in a way that would not cause people to pose as more open-minded or tolerant than they really are. What percentage of people -- including business people and members of this listserv -- who think of themselves as spiritual are members of organized religions? To what degree do these people consider their religion to be superior to other religions? To what degree and in what ways do they believe it is possible to be spiritual without being a member of a religion? This might provide some insight into what "spiritual" really means to people. I wonder how many people do not see a clear distinction between spirituality and membership in a particular religion. And if they do see a clear distinction, how do they define "spirituality" and the aspects of spirituality that are independent of any particular religion? I suspect some people believe "spiritual" merely denotes persons who give great importance to their religious beliefs as opposed to persons who say they are members of a religion but give no thought to their religion when they are not in church. Perhaps this research has been done, but if not, it would certainly be interesting.
Tom Slocombe
>>> Don McCormick <
don.mccormick@CSUN.EDU> 5/12/2009 2:40 PM >>>
Hi
There is an article in this month's Harpers that would make a great
case about the management of spirituality and religion in an
organization. It is called "Jesus Killed Mohammed: The Crusade for a
Christian military." It is about a spiritual movement in the U.S.
military that in some instances interferes with the mission of the
military, opposes religious and spiritual diversity, and infringes on
others' spiritual/religious freedom. Interestingly enough, many who
are part of this insist on calling themselves spiritual, not
religious. The article's title refers to an incident where a
relatively peaceful town in Iraq became much more violent in response
to Mosques that had crosses spray painted on them and a Bradley
fighting vehicle was driven around town with the phrase "Jesus killed
Mohammed" painted on its side in Arabic. But the article is about more
than that incident. It is about a pervasive pattern in the military.
The article also reported "forced Christian prayer in Iraq and at
home; combat deaths made occasions for evangelical sermons by senior
officers; Christian apocalypse video games distributed to the troops:
mandatory briefings on the correlation of the war to the Book of
Revelation; exorcism designed do drive out "unclean spirits" from
military property; beating of atheist troops that are winked at by the
chain of command." It raises important issues about management,
spirituality and religion. In particular--where does one draw the line
between spiritual and religious expression and infringement on others'
spiritual and religious freedom? How does one draw the line and what
does one do in situations where the line is crossed?
- Don
---
Don McCormick
Department of Management, College of Business and Economics
California State University Northridge, Juniper Hall 4218
18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge CA 91330
http://www.csun.edu/~dmccormick (818) 677-2418
"If I pass on to you what is meaningful to me, it will be a better,
more useable chunk of stuff, than if I attempted to pass on the whole
business, most of which was not meaningful to me." – Charles Eames
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