There are however, also – from a biblical perspective – alien spirits that dominate individuals and groups such as institutions and nations

Author Anne Rice said last week that she was ‘quitting Christianity:’

The once-lapsed Catholic wrote that she was could no longer accept her religion’s teachings on homosexuality, feminism, politics and birth control.

“In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian,” Rice announced on her Facebook page.

Can you leave religion and keep Christ? Can you be spiritual without being religious?

…from a biblical perspective, this claim will not hold up. The idea of spirituality in general strikes me as being akin to the idea of a God in general. In fact, neither the Hebrew nor the Greek texts of the Bible contain words that can indisputably be translated “spirituality.” Even those places where the word “spiritual” appears in English are questionable as to the correctness of the translation.

In the Old and the New Testaments, when the Holy Spirit interacts with human beings, the action always is one of the Spirit acting upon those persons to enable them to carry out tasks God has given them…

From a biblical perspective, then, “spirituality” is not something one achieves or a stance one adopts, but is the character and the capabilities of individuals and congregations that have embraced the work of the Holy Spirit upon themselves.