Religiosity vs. Spirituality

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The proliferation of churches and the wide-spread of vices in Ghana raise questions of the transformative effects of Christianity---- spirituality. Is spirituality a part of religion or distinct from it? Is it impossible to be spiritual without being religious? Conversely, is it possible to be religious without being spiritual? Spirituality may be broadly defined as personal relationship of an individual to a state of mind, being or place outside of the experience of our five senses. And it emphasizes a deeper understanding of life and the sacred.

For most Christians, spirituality involves developing a personal relationship and experience with Jesus Christ through prayer, meditation, or Bible reading. However, this is a narrow definition of spirituality because it does not make any references to life, as if Christians live in a vacuum. In other words, what is missing from the definition is the element of practicality--- how one lives one’s spiritual life in a sociological world characterized with a web of relationships and interrelationships with people. This is what Jesus Christ refers to as neighbours (see Mat. 19:19; 22:37). In the Old Testament—Lev 19:13, it says thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour. Consequently, spirituality also entails commitment to certain values. Values such as transparency, empathy, trustworthiness, freedom, kindness, honesty, justice and caring are cardinal foundations of spirituality. The Bible refers to these values as the fruits of the spirit (See Gal 5:22-23; Eph 5:9; Heb 12:11). One may also refer to these values as ethics. Genuine Christians exhibit these fruits or values in their daily lives as employers, employees, pastors, priests, drivers, students, managers, cabinet ministers, presidents, shoppers, school teachers, doctors, or carpenters. These fruits are a conditional basis for continuous relationship with Jesus Christ (See Mat 7:20-23).

Religiosity, on the other hand, may be referred to as membership of a specific religious organization or association with certain religious practices. Examples of these include being a Catholic, Methodist, Pentecostal, Adventist, deacon, elder or membership of a church’s choir or singing band, committee, or department. It also includes attending all- night prayer meetings, praying in a particular way such as speaking in tongues, raising the arms, and kneeling down. Singing, dancing, jumping and reciting monosyllabic verses of the Bible are all part of religious practices. Nevertheless, it should be noted that spirituality can be either a part of a particular religion or independent of religion. Some people are not religious but they are spiritual. Similarly, some people may be religious and at the same time spiritual.

However, some Christians discredit those values as unimportant relative to relationship with Jesus Christ. They also regard water baptism as a spiritual transformation. Admittedly, Jesus Christ requires rebirth for entering the kingdom of God---John 3:3. In the same way, in Paul’s letters, he stresses this experience in terms of new creation, transformation, and new-self (See 1Cor 5:7; Gal6:15; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 4:22-24). For example, 1Cor 5: 7 asks Christians to purge themselves of things unacceptable to God. Other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism have a similar requirement. In Buddhism, rebirth is described as “awakening”, “enlightenment”, “emancipation” or “attaining the Buddhahood”. In Hinduism, this experience is called Mokha, deliverance, release, or liberty. But water baptism in Christianity is an initiation, not a spiritual transformation. Indeed, water baptism is the first step in the journey to become spiritual. It does not in and of itself impart to an individual any of the values I have stated above; nor does it automatically drive one to start building a relationship with Jesus Christ. Most people have gone through the process of water baptism but it did have a scratch on their character, so to speak. They still live their old lives.

Contrary to some people’s perception, Jesus Christ emphasizes the centrality of those values as a condition for maintaining relationship with him. In Mat 7:21-22, Jesus states: “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?” That quote suggests the tremendous importance of those values as an entrance requirement to heaven. In addition, in Mat 5:13-16 and Luke 11:33-36, Jesus speaks of the value of transparency. He also speaks of the value of caring and empathy in Luke 10:29-37. As well, Mat 18:3-4; 1 Peter 5:5; and Acts 20:19 stress the value of humility. Given the importance of these values, why are they less emphasized in Ghanaian Christian teachings? Why do Christians talk about their personal relationship with Jesus Christ, yet they talk little about those values?

The answers to these two questions can be traced to the dysfunctionality of contemporary Christianity in Ghana.

Ghanaian leaders' behaviour and action reinforces religiosity rather than spirituality. Though most of our leaders are professed Christians, they do not espouse or demonstrate those spiritual values in their daily leadership activities. What they usually ask is “let us pray for this or that”. There are a number of occasions when our leaders asked the people to seek divine assistance for purely sociological problems. For instance, when our leaders are informed of the frequency of road fatality their solution is that the people should pray for divine intervention to reduce the fatalities. This is another way of saying that the road fatalities are caused by evil forces rather than the failure of the government to fix the roads, lack of road signs and enforcement of road regulations, and the fraudulent ways in which people obtain driver licence. This sociological problem—the problem of leadership ineptitude and dysfunctional organization-- suddenly becomes a religious problem. Ghana’s problems need spiritual solutions in the form of its Christians and others making a commitment to those values.

Again, before the last general elections, president Kufuor asked Ghanaians to go to church and pray for the nation in order to prevent any violence and preserve peace. Justice or fairness is a cardinal spiritual value. If president Kufuor’s NPP had treated all constituents fairly in terms of his leadership of the country and organization of public services, what was he afraid of? To quote Martin Luther King, peace is not the absence of violence but the presence of justice. For me, our leaders' frequent resort to religiosity is a political ploy to divert attention from their own ineptitude in running the wheels of government. Our leaders have no moral or spiritual basis for their leadership--- they serve themselves rather than the people of Ghana. As Albion Mends always says, “When we benefit more than the people we serve, we are not serving."

To conclude this short piece, let me ask this question: Is Ghana a Christian country? If the answer is yes, what makes Ghana a Christian country? If Ghana were genuinely a Christian country, we would have a low incidence of interpersonal fraud, corruption, theft of public treasury, and high productivity. Who says the refusal to be productive workers does not amount to dishonesty and fraud? If you have a job and you refuse to discharge your assigned duties and responsibilities, are you not dishonest and fraudulent? The same thing applies to employers who refuse to pay their workers a fair, living wage. What we have in Ghana at present is a huge number of “religious Christians” and a very few “spiritual Christians”. Ghana needs sincere spiritual Christians who do not only maintain personal relationships with Jesus Christ, but who are also committed to those values I have specified above.