OPINION: Robin Schumacher,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Wall Street Journal recently\u00a0reported\u00a0that young New Yorkers have a new hot spot: Sunday Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At St. Joseph\u2019s Church in Greenwich Village, \u201cA recent 6 p.m. Sunday Mass felt like a sold-out event. Every inch of pew space was filled, mostly with young adults. Latecomers squeezed into makeshift rows of plastic folding chairs or stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the foyer, peering through glass doors. Others squatted on balcony steps or leaned against walls for the roughly 90-minute service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s behind the surge in interest?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The article gives several reasons, including the search for community after the pandemic and the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, part of a wave of high-profile incidents of political violence nationwide that has turned hearts in a different direction. But another cause has been the realized emptiness of being \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although there are reports of more spirituality than ever with greater access to spiritual teachings and experiences, it\u2019s been accompanied by less commitment and clarity. The result has been a faith that is deeply personal, but superficial; a spirituality that seems empowering, but doesn\u2019t transform; a search that is always moving, but never resolving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, there is that itsy-bitsy issue of it not being a true<\/em> faith. And what else do you expect but a face plant from something false?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The disaster of doing what\u2019s right in our own eyes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve seen a few shots over the bow warning about this. A major review in Current Opinion in Psychology<\/a><\/em> found that those spiritual but not religious (SBNR) \u201ctend to be higher on neuroticism\u201d, which is a personality trait associated with anxiety, emotional instability, and stress reactivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A study published in the journal Religions<\/a><\/em> found that SBNR individuals often report: \u201cstruggles\u2026with existential issues\u201d that include unresolved questions about meaning, tension around belief, and lack of clarity about identity and purpose. There\u2019s also a 2026 study in Scientific Reports<\/a><\/em> that examined non-religious spiritual practices closely aligned with SBNR identity and found associations with anxiety and depressive symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting theological for just a minute, it looks like some people find out the hard way that breaking the first commandment comes with very real and personal consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The individualized, anti-institutional, slippery, and self-directed spirituality is really just a reenactment of Judges 21:25<\/a>: \u201cEveryone did what was right in his own eyes.\u201d And look at how well that worked out for Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An ugly aspect of the SBNR route is that it\u2019s often heavily shaped by social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, which optimize for one thing and only one thing \u2013 engagement. You won\u2019t find the testing of truth claims there; it\u2019s where truth isn\u2019t received, but constructed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n