Why "Religion" Has Not Died Off: And Thank "Godness"

By Loran Joly

Religion has played a crucial part in our lives, since the very beginning of Mankind.

 

This author, 61, puts forth some of his ideas on religion, and what he thinks might be its best aims.  In particular, he believes there to be a marked difference between religions and spirituality.

 

Of particular note to some, would be the last two chapters of this book, which discusses his views on what a "cult" is, and the origins of religious trauma.

 

He was brought up largely by immigrants from Eastern Europe, and when he was very young, his parents almost became missionaries for the Plymouth Brethren denomination of the Christian faith.  Additionally, his maternal grandfather, whom he spent some time with, was born in Ukraine, and was a Mennonite, and his grandmother and mother have been Baptists.  His mother is a refugee from World War II, having come to Ellis Island in 1950.

 

He also has extensively looked into other views such as those of the Native American Indians, and the Buddhists, as well as the quasi-faith of Modern Western Psychology, and the quasi-faith of Money.  Also, in his early twenties, he spent a week at the American location of L'Abri, near Boston, Massachussetts, a group originally started by Dr. Francis Schaeffer - a man rcognized internationally for his work in Christianity and culture.

 

He is also somewhat experienced in psychological views, having spent 150 sessions in psychoanalysis in his twenties, with two MD psychoanalysts:  one in San Diego, who once was on a medical school faculty in Kentucky, but later relocated to Manhattan, and then Las Vegas, and the other, a Jewish analyst in San Diego.  He has also availed himself of the assistance, later in life, of others, including a psychologist/life coach with a Ph.D., who practiced a more sociological view of the psyche.  He sees merit in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but recognizes distinct limitations built into this approach, ones where certain core premises have imposed considerable limitations:  certain core premises which might focus on promoting what he calls a "contingency-management" approach to life, instead of adding the components of acceptance and tolerance, say:  distinctly "spiritual" principles, he believes.

 

Also, he has spent decades living in the Buckle of the Bible Belt, and has spent time exploring the religion of Appalachia, including the Amish and Mennonites in Kentucky - to include attending services at two Mennonite churches, one by invitation by a Mennonite furniture store friend, as well as looking into the Cherokee Indian faith and leaders in Tennessee and North Carolina, and also spent time in various Navajo regions in Arizona.

• Language: English
• Publisher: S Jaeger
• Release date: May 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781735459769

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

This book draws upon a number of my life experiences and my upbringing in general, with regard to spirituality….

I was raised my first four years by my grandparents, who were immigrants from Ukraine and Poland (grandfather and grandmother, respectively). My grandfather followed the ideas of The Mennonites, and my grandmother, The Baptists.

When my mother came to America at the age of twelve, after World War II was over - to Ellis Island - she soon joined an ethnic German-speaking Baptist church, married at the age of twenty, and my father immediately pursued training in the field of Christian ministry.

A t first, my parents had strongly considered becoming missionaries in Canada, and while this was not ultimately pursued, my father did complete an undergraduate degree from Detroit Bible College. They were particularly oriented toward the Plymouth Brethren approach, and I was thus brought up for a time, as a Plymouth Brethren - something not too far akin to the Mennonites, in certain ways.

At the age of 21, I spent a week at a training center known as LaBri, near Boston, Massachusetts. This was the American version of what had been originally started in Switzerland by Francis Schaefer: a group dedicated to strongly pursuing Christian faith from a more intellectual (aka thinking) perspective.

In later years, I found myself taking up some assistance from two non-spiritual sources: psychoanalysts, both physicians; one, of no faith, and the other, a Jewish man: the former, originally from California, and the other, actually living in California at the time I sought their advice. I also received assistance in the Cognitive Therapy approach, and later, also explored meditation and Buddhism.

And while living in California for a few years in my twenties, I would hike, and also do some traveling in Arizona, where I spent some time on the Navajo Indian Reservation, to include the Indian groups around Flagstaff and Holbrook. And I then started collecting what would be a number of books on Indians and Indian herbal medicine.

Now, in 2021, I finally reignited my interest in the Native Americans, by visiting the Cherokee Indian areas of Cherokee, North Carolina, and Vonore, Tennessee.

Now, I might also mention that I spent two decades living in a town which was immensely oriented to teaching Christian leaders.

This book was written in the Fall of 2021, while I camped at the Cherokee National Forest, what with my exploring the the Native American Indians nearby - specifically, The Cherokees, on a trip to that Tennessee area once known as a major settlement of the Cherokee Indians: Monroe County, Tennessee, where it said that countless Overhill Cherokee towns are buried under water in East Tennessee. (fernwehtun.com).

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I stayed three days, camping by night in that nearby Cherokee National Forest, which is located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee. This 650,000-acre forest is the "largest tract of public land in