> Well, yes, agreed; and it is very appealing in that way. I chimed in
> with Carrol because I live in the Bay Area and the behavior of people
> who call themselves spiritual is a lot closer to his definition.
I see what you mean. I once met a Buddhist Repug ruminating similar crap, but I thought of him as an oddity. I tend to look at things from a more philosophical- rational perspective and I sometimes forget how fucked up things can be in this rathole aka the US of A, especially when religion is concerned. I just read the posting about the US attitude toward treating AIDS in Africa (abstinence only) and realized that words cannot describe how much I hate not just the leadership of this country but the good, pious, god-fearing fucks that vote for these trolls. And some on this list wonder why I do not give a flying fuck about "da people" in this country - all I can say to "da Amerikan people" is go and fuck yourself with your god, your president, and your flag.
In any case, the Bay Area religious wackos aside (I understand this area is a magnet for fuckups of various stripes), I actually met quite a number of people subscribing to various forms of spiritualism whom I highly respected, wiccans, universalists, even buddhists. They tended to be very open minded, high on multiculturalism and inclusiveness, pacifist, big on social justice, politically liberal, and doing a lot of good work in prisons, with the homeless, gay rights etc. Some of it was a bit too "bleeding heart" to my taste, but I have nothing but high praise for these folk.
Wojtek