"There is a much deeper longing for a spiritual understanding of life among people than is generally realized. While the mainline churches in the U.S.A. and in Europe are not gaining supporters and members that around, half of the teenagers in the U.S.A., around 14 million, belong to some kind of religious cult. Many of these cults are bizarre and even dangerous, and often people need to be rescued from them, or deprogrammed against their wishes to be restored to a normal frame of mind. Whether these young people find what they are looking for in cults, I do not know, but they are surely looking for something that they cannot find in more conventional forms of religion."
"I think that they are genuinely searching for a more spiritual way of life. The fact that they are exploited and deceived and often abused in no way detracts from the sincerity of their concern. The failure of main line churches and religious groups to recognize their need is one of the facts of modern religious life."
"In Japan, similar problems have occurred, and many strange religious groups have appeared in recent times." (The Way of Kami, 1988, Ch. 10)
A good article on spirituality that includes some interesting statistics:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.edpath.com/AccessSpirituality.htm
Or consider these words by a Shinto Priest:
ReplyDelete"There is a much deeper longing for a spiritual understanding of life among people than is generally realized. While the mainline churches in the U.S.A. and in Europe are not gaining supporters and members that around, half of the teenagers in the U.S.A., around 14 million, belong to some kind of religious cult. Many of these cults are bizarre and even dangerous, and often people need to be rescued from them, or deprogrammed against their wishes to be restored to a normal frame of mind. Whether these young people find what they are looking for in cults, I do not know, but they are surely looking for something that they cannot find in more conventional forms of religion."
"I think that they are genuinely searching for a more spiritual way of life. The fact that they are exploited and deceived and often abused in no way detracts from the sincerity of their concern. The failure of main line churches and religious groups to recognize their need is one of the facts of modern religious life."
"In Japan, similar problems have occurred, and many strange religious groups have appeared in recent times." (The Way of Kami, 1988, Ch. 10)