A Denver Post article suggests that we are headed towards a new spiritual age of inter-religion. It appears that everyone, whether Christian, Catholic, Jewish or Muslim, has a yearning for a deeper spiritual connection with the universe and God, which they want to achieve through meditation and mindfulness.
That’s not to say that people are leaving their primary faith group for Buddhism.
According to Rev. Stuart Lord, Naropa University’s new president, “it’s about cultivating an inner life, not the outer appearances…. I’ve been studying Buddhism and meditation for about seven years. I look at it as helping a person lead a fuller Christian life.”
Bi-religious folks even have names now:
Jubus are Jews who use Buddhist teachings into Judaism.
Bujus are Buddhists who have Jewish parents.
UUbus are Unitarian Universalist Buddhists.
Ebus are Episcopalian Buddhists.
Zen Catholics are just that.
According to Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk and founder of the Centering Prayer movement, Buddhism’s appeal lies in its ability to fill in the gaps of traditional religions. “We sensed that the Eastern religions, with their highly developed spirituality, had something we didn’t have. In the last generation, 10 to 20 years, some didn’t even think there was a Christian spirituality, just rules-do’s and don’ts and dogma they didn’t find spiritually nourishing.”
However, such backlashes ignore the reality that 7 out of 10 religious Americans believe there is more than one path to salvation, according to Pew Forum’s 2007 Religious Landscape Survey.
The full story can be read here.