Spiritual but not Religious

Recently there's been a thread on this topic on the UUMA-chat. Here's my contribution to the conversation, expanded and slightly modified for this forum (to which I have been terribly undisciplined about contributing).

Whenever I address this topic, I like to point out that the word Spirit in the Greek New Testament is pneuma, which can also be translated as "breath" or "wind," while the root of the word Religious is ligare which means "to bind" (as in ligament or obligation). Thus Religion is sometimes defined as "that which binds us back/binds us again to God" (or whatever passes for God in your theology: Creation/the Ground of Being/the Interdependent Web of All Existence/Matters of Ultimate Concern); while Spirituality might be said to refer to "that aspect of our experience which can be felt but not seen, which is as ubiquitous as air, and as intimate and essential to our own existence and well-being as breathing itself." Given these two definitions, it seems to me that people who claim to be "Spiritual, but not Religious" are simply folks who don't want to feel "tied down" or "held back" by the traditional rules, rituals, and discipline of "organized" religion, but who still wish to be in touch with that Higher Mystery which gives us life and gives life meaning, and refuses to be "bound" by our attempts to rationalize and codify it. That's not so complicated, is it?

I think the tricky part for those of us who like to think of ourselves as both Religious AND Spiritual leaders is to be able to show our people that religion does indeed have a place in our spiritual lives, because we NEED tradition, ritual, discipline, and covenantal relationships mutual obligation and accountability just as much as we do regular inspiration in order to live truly meaningful and fulfilling lives. Without the sense of "discipleship" provided by routine religious devotion, "spirituality" is often just a lot of hot air. Just my two cents worth, from someone who really does know what he's talking about, and who speaks from personal experience....