Adversity increases spirituality

 

Remember how full the churches were after 9/11? How long did that last? We thought we’d never forget and never go back to life as it was before that day.

We sort of did. Now with the economic crisis that not only hit everyone but still seems to be beyond anyone’s control, people are forced to ask themselves what really matters. And more are turning to churches and pastors and matters of the core human spirit.

The Catholic New World did a piece on this recently, and incidentally, I’m quoted in it. But here’s the link anyway. Joyce Duriga tapped into something profound early in the crisis.

Big media have been slow to pick up on the subject of people turning to religion in times of crisis, but USAToday did this interesting piece.

Now, GetReligion takes the subject further, by sizing up coverage in WaPo.

The article describes these families as if they were sinking ships. All that has mattered up until now in keeping these Titanics afloat was money to buy stuff and the hopes of more money to buy more stuff. Now that’s no longer the case for the average middle class American. A vague sense of “spiritual prosperity” is going to take the place of materialism. I don’t get a very good sense from the article what that is, nor do I get a sense that the people who are talking about “spiritual prosperity” know what they mean by spiritual prosperity.

The vague sense of spiritual prosperity could have been re-enforced if more authoritative sources were quoted, such as the Old or New Testament. An appeal to historical examples beyond the Great Depression could also have backed-up the concept portrayed in the article.

At least they’re covering it. Which GetReligion appreciates. The commentary makes good and probing points. WaPo, it says, does well to raise questions. But then they leave you hanging…

In a significant way, readers are left to decide for themselves the value they wish to place on materialism. And I liked that. Unfortunately, I came away from the article with little idea of what it means to grow my “Spiritual Prosperity.”

It really doesn’t take more financial prosperity on the part of ailing media budgets to pay for better research. As GetReligion suggests, they could start by reading Job. The Book of Job.