Labels and Fear

I have a friend who sent me her spiritual journey story to post on the Web site, and afterward, she said she was surprised at how “vulnerable” she felt having it online. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to send a photo anymore.

This caught my attention; I needed to understand it better. She said she normally feels her spirituality is a “private matter.” And many people say the same thing. But it seems to me too easy a reason to avoid standing up for what you believe. I wanted to know, what is the real underlying reasons we don’t want to declare ourselves in a spiritual way?

When I ask myself the question, why I have avoided saying “I am New Age” in the past, I first decided it was because it helped me avoid responsibility. If I don’t commit to something publicly, I can’t be held accountable for it publicly. I can become as self-absorbed as I please and no one will brand me a hypocrite for not living up to my declared philosophy. To keep our spirituality “private” absolves us of having to actually change.

To keep our spirituality private also helps differentiate ourselves from “them,” the traditionally religious, who loudly proclaim their identity, and harshly judge to the point of condemning to hell those who believe differently. Their use of labels gives them great social power, and because they so often use that power in negative ways, we have decided that power is scary and labeling in and of itself is bad.

I asked my friend, is either of these the reason why you don’t want to say you’re New Age? Or is it fear of ridicule because the New Age has such a bad reputation in pop culture? Or is it fear of censure from the religious right?

And she told me that yes, she feared being attacked by those who are traditionally religious. She comes from a conservative family, and does not wish to invite their judgment and criticism. And this made me so very sad. And upset to realize that even in 21st century America, alleged land of religious tolerance, we non-traditionally “spiritual but not religious” can feel so very untolerated. And feel the need to hide what we believe.

I recalled all the times I have been with Christian people and played along as a Christian myself, talked about the church I went to as a kid. I remember being particularly afraid that the Christian family across the street would not let their kids play with mine if they knew I considered myself “New Age.” After all, they were being taught by their church that New Age is a plot of Satan to take over the world….

My reticence was understandable. But I have come to see that in giving in to fear, we only perpetuate the fear cycle. By hiding who I am and what I believe, I make it easier for Christians to go on misunderstanding the New Age. If I don’t declare myself, I cannot correct their misconceptions and I leave them to continue in their fear of the unknown. If I don’t declare myself, I make it easy for the mainstream to continue to ridicule my beliefs and marginalize them and refuse to take them seriously. This has got to change.