 | Tom Welk
DMin is Director of Pastoral Care & Professional Education at Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice. He also teaches at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita. He has certification with the American Association of Pastoral Counselors in Clinical Pastoral Education. His memberships include Park Ridge Center for Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics, and St. Louis University Center for Health Care Ethics, Charter Board Member Kansas Health Ethics, Inc., and Ethics Committee Member for National Hospice Organization. He has received the President's Award of Excellence for Public and Community Awareness, for the "Dying Well" project from The National Hospice Organization. Tom's group presentations include: Association of Kansas Hospices, Midwest Congress on Aging, and Kansas Health Ethics Conference. Tom Welk can be contacted by fax at (316) 265-6066, by e-mail at: twelk@hynesmemorial.org, or at his office at (316)219-1791. |
Religion
2002-10-01 12:06:00
Spirituality vs. religion
: What is the difference between spirituality and religion?
Tom Welk
Question: What is the difference between spirituality and religion? Answer: Acknowledging that spiritual needs are a part of human functioning is one thing; defining what is meant by spirituality is another. Spirituality and religion are frequently understood as one and the same. Even though there is a close connection between the two, at the same time a clear distinction must be made.Religion is the means whereby spiritual needs generally are meant. In a religious setting or environment those questions about life that are profoundly human are addressed. Individuals must be free to choose the setting/church/religion they decide best suits them.Religion in and of itself is not spirituality. What, then, is spirituality? It is a question not easily answered and one that lends itself to a great deal of diversity by way of reflection. What is most common in all this diversity is the human need to know why. What are we about? What is the meaning of our existence? There is a deeply rooted need in human beings to make sense.As a Calypso chant puts it so well (pardon the exclusive language): "Tiger got to hunt; bird got to fly; man got to sit and ask, why, why, why? Tiger get to rest; bird get to land; man have to tell himself he understand." Humanity is the only part of the created universe that reflects on its existence. We have this innate need to figure out why we are. We do so philosophically and theologically. Libraries are filled with volumes of books delving into this basic question. We are all philosophers and theologians. No human being is excused from struggling with the question of "Why am I here?" An episode within this past year of the popular TV program Everyone Loves Raymond had this as its theme. The oldest girl in the Romano family asks her Dad, Raymond, "Why did God put us here?" He leaves her room, promising to come back shortly with an answer to her question. Through most of the program the adult members of the family hotly debate the question; they come to no satisfactory answers.In the final scene Raymond and his wife, Debra, are ready to tackle the question. They really don't know what they are going to say, but at least they are ready to talk to their daughter about her question. In the hallway outside the girl's bedroom Raymond wants reassurance that Debra will back him up, and not just "make funny faces from across the room."But they don't find her in the bedroom. Hearing some playful laughter coming from another bedroom down the hall, they enter to find the three children gleefully engaged in a pillow fight, enjoying one another's company. They ignore the parents' invitation to talk, and the parents join their children in the joy of the moment. The program ends with no further dialogue; it simply allows the viewer to draw his/her own conclusion. Why did God put us here? It is as simple as living and enjoying fully the gift of life, lived responsibly in relationship with one another.This question is reflected on more seriously in a recent article in the British medical journal the Lancet. In-depth interviews were conducted with terminally ill individuals. Some of them had desired euthanasia or assisted suicide, primarily because of disintegration and loss of community. They expressed this with statements such as, "I am no longer who I was."The question is properly asked, then, "How do people know who they are unless they are told?" Loss of community/relationship is keenly and painfully felt. This issue is addressed when dealing with terminally ill patients and their families. Enabling terminally ill patients to live life to the full to its very last minute is the essence of the hospice philosophy of care. Why are we living? Religious groups, in their basic catechism, answer this question in a simple way: "To know, love and serve." That is the essence of living.
