Deseret News | Searching for the 'Jesus Brand'

Searching for the 'Jesus Brand'

Author says Americans are seeking spirituality, coming together

By Susan Whitney
Deseret News

Published: Saturday, July 5, 2008 12:10 a.m. MDT

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Ken Wilson thinks Americans are on a religious pilgrimage. Most of us, anyway. Whether we spend the Sabbath at a place of worship or not, he says, we are searching for meaning in greater numbers than ever before.

And our search is drawing us together. Wilson says that, too.

Some of us cling harder than ever to our own particular beliefs, he says. But most of us are trying to figure out what we have in common.

Wilson is an evangelical minister and one of the leaders of a collaboration between evangelicals and scientists as they attempt to save God's creation/the environment. This spring, he published a book called "Jesus Brand? Spirituality."

In a telephone interview from his home in Michigan, Wilson said he sees a massive change going on in the religious landscape.

Wilson, himself, follows Christ as a source of leadership and inspiration. However, he is seeing the coming together of all faiths — and those who are unaffiliated with any religion.

Wilson writes, "There are wrongs that need righting; problems in our world that need fixing. These are complex problems that can only be solved by extraordinary cooperation.

"We can't get there from here without a shared concern for justice, rooted in the hope for a better world. We can't get there from here without a substantially increased capacity to practice love, including love of our enemies and those with whom we don't easily get along."

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The recent Pew Forum surveys of the U.S. religious landscape seem to bear out at least part of Wilson's theory — that there is a whole lot of searching going on. Fully 44 percent of Americans have changed faiths at some point during their lives, and the number of those who are unaffiliated with any religion has never been higher. It's at 16 percent and continuing to rise.

Wilson also believes all humans are innately spiritual and that those who are not affiliated with any faith find their own ways to nurture their souls. When a person of faith meets someone who says, "I am spiritual but not religious," Wilson advises both to take the opportunity to ask questions and find common ground.

He offers dozens of questions in his book. Questions such as, "Is it possible to be a disciple of Jesus while remaining unsettled about what many consider to be core issues of faith?" Questions such as, "What are some experiences you've had on the giving and the receiving side of contempt over matters of spirituality or religion?"

Recently the Deseret News asked several Utahns who are not affiliated with a church to consider two of Wilson's questions: "What opportunity do you see in your own life to participate in the communal dimension of spirituality?" and "What one thing about the church (your own, those you know of, your impression of the Christian church at large) would you change to make it more in keeping with the spirituality of Jesus as you understand it?"