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One nation, under Gods

Op-Ed

Far from turning our backs on religion, today's Americans are religiously fluid. And that's a good thing.

December 25, 2011

With so many choices out there, though, it's easy to get "lost in the jungle of possibilities," as one Hindu holy man put it. And choosing a religion, of course, is not the same as choosing a new car or a calling plan. The stakes are higher. And so is the cost. Seekers must be willing to sacrifice. Otherwise, their seeking is reduced to just another form of narcissism. The worst kind, perhaps, because it is disguised as something noble.

Carl Jung, something of a God-hopper himself, saw the risks inherent in this excess of spiritual possibilities. "Modern man tries on a variety of religions and beliefs as if they were Sunday attire, only to lay them aside again like worn-out clothes." Or, to put it another way: We have commitment issues. When one path proves incompatible, we switch to another (and there is always another).

God-hoppers are, at their worst, spiritual dilettantes. At their best, they are experimenters, in the tradition of Gandhi. He took an almost scientific approach to his spiritual experimentation, carefully noting the effects of a certain practice, such as fasting or meditation, then making adjustments, then repeating. Gandhi also borrowed liberally from Christian theology, unapologetically plucking grains of wisdom wherever he found them.

In that sense, he was very American.

Eric Weiner is the author, most recently, of "Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine."

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