Is a person's religious label more important than their spirituality?

First of all religion and spirituality never go together. Religion teaches its dependants to follow Church guidelines while Spirituality teaches its followers to Think for themselves. The Bible is a collection of Myth some of it going back thousands of years B. C. Pick any label you want but don't try to stick one on me!

As for me, I believe that religion or faith is something that should be kept personal. Everyone has their own view on GOd and how you should live, and restraining that with rules is just something I'm not very comfortable with. When needed to I lable myself as an agnostic, but my beliefs are a blend of Christianity, Wicca, Buddhism and other views on life that I've gathered through literature both spiritual and recreational. Organised religion scares me, in the sense that with one spiritual leader the temptation of misusing ones power to attain personal benefits can be too big. The whole group mentality when it comes to religion is what I feel is a big problem. No offense to those that enjoy the solidarity in organised religion, this is just my own personal opinion. :)

I've never labeled myself one thing or another. I grew up in a family of many different religions. My father grew up Catholic but converted to Islam as an adult. My mother came from both a Baptist and Methodist family. My half sisters are Jehova's Witnesses, My uncles family is Seventh Day Adventist. My parents never told me I had to worship a certain way. I knew what their beliefs were but I have to choose my own path. But no matter what you want to label yourself to me they are all the same. I consider myself a spiritual person but not religious. I haven't set foot in a church in many years, I don't feel I need to. My beliefs are internal I don't need a sacred book, figure, or "representative" of god to show me the "way"

Boy, pussyfoot around much? Religion is one of the biggest factors in man's (and woman's) disconnection from who we really are. Both religion and spirituality seem to be more sunday go to meetin' sort of duds that people don to impress others. Or a ridiculous attempt to 'save themselves and fix a broken world'. The fact is we are all spirit incarnate, participating in this celebration of the glorious marriage of spirit and matter. We are all here because we have chosen to be here, and the world is not broken.

I do have a very strong attachment to a "religion, faith, belief system, and a People". However,it is not necessary to be within the confines of 4 walls to achieve a deep commune with your inner spirituality. You do not have to go to a certain place to pray or whatever it is that you do. A beautiful sunrise or sunset over the water or a mountain can be the perfect place to be. You do not need others around you unless you just wish to share a moment or have a personal need for that. Shalom

Religion is such a hard topic. I think generallly most religions are good and I think it's nice to have it in your life. I can't say I agree 100% with everything my religion says I should or should not do but that is between me and God. I think the best advice I ever got from someone was to check out churches and you will know which one feels right to you. Different people need different things out of religion, some need the rules and stability, some need the social aspect, etc. No one church is right for everyone and I'm glad we have a choice.

"Are you a person who feels it is more important to belong to a "labeled" organization...or do you put more store in your deepest spirituality and your inner personal relationship with that which you believe in and follow?" I personally can't stand labels of any kind whether the topic is religion or lifestyle etc etc etc...I feel that labels actually have the ability to hold a person back rather than allow them to move forward and/or grow as a being ya know....Unfortunately though, I do have to use them with myself for the sake of others so they have an understanding..but I dont put any stock in them....Sure I fit into ALL the following Pagan/Buddhist/Vodou/Spiritualist/Occultist/Satanist/Native American Spiritualist/Witch and the list just goes on and on....Why? Because my personal path could very well be described as bits or pcs of each in the eyes of another...However if I must be labeled I am a Pagan Buddhist Witch...or even an Occultist Buddhist Witch or a Vodou, Pagan, Buddhist or a....LOL ok you get my point ;-) ...bottomline though, TO ME...I'm just me..and a spiritual me at that...My personal spiritual path has no label as far as I'm concerned ya know....Words dont and can't define me, my beliefs, actions, words and thoughts do and there are far too many to narrow it down to a simple label....

A label is just a label - it really doesn't tell you anything about that person; it's what is inside the person that counts. I personally don't feel the need to go to a church, I can recognize my spirituality without that. The Bible's teachings guide me through life. My relationship with God is personal and between Him and me.

ALthough I was raised as catholic, I can say that I do not really belong to any "labeled" organization for a long time. I do have my beliefs and I have my own values and standards. I believe that all denominated religions start with a good basis, and respect them all, but we are all human and many things interfere, sometimes making them somewhat different from what they were set to be. I believe that it's not to which religion/church etc we belong to, but how we live our live that counts. And when organized religion really opens minds and work together instead of against each other then we will probably be closer to what spirituality/religion is.

I know lots of people who don't have a religion but ae spiritually much higher than catholics and christians.So if you would look at the whole picture i would not look at the label because if someone says all christians were good and that's the label than i would have saidf it's not true because there are also bad christians there are in every religion bad persons.So i would look at the spirituality of the person. I'm like all good people go to heaven if they believe in God or not and it's an endless discussion but that's my view which must be respected.People don't have to agree with me and i don't have to agree with them but i except the way people think unless it's really extreme.Someone's spirituality is much more important than someone who's going to church or is called a christian because spirituality is a persons inside and not a building or a group or whatever.