But here's the real crux. If I may indulge in a little armchair psychological analysis...
Matt clearly has baggage about the term "spirituality." It's not the *term's* baggage as he repeatedly states. It's HIS baggage. Some of us have dropped that baggage but you want us to pick it back up. NO.
Because as Britt says repeatedly: no one is asking him to use the term, only to lay off other people who find the word useful. ("Too bad!")
His baggage is made plain by how he argues this. Religion still has its hold on him. He has not let go of the religion's rules, its control over this venue. Spirituality is theirs and he refuses to grab it back or even let anyone else grab it back.
He hasn't unpacked this enough to realize HE HAS POWER TO MAKE THE WORD MEAN ANYTHING HE WANTS. And with his amount of influence, he could tip the balance and the word would be ours to all but fully define.
Some of us have freed ourselves, along with this concept, from Christianity's controlling grasp over our natural human requirements for symbolism, narrative, purpose-seeking, ritual, community, awe, transcendence, fulfillment, moral framework, interpretation, etc. We have come to realize these concepts are more flexible than our religious abusers presented them. That we can create for ourselves our own meaning, even while not taking it too seriously and not buying the whole kool-aid factory. [fixed perfect typo: "kook-aid"! 😂]
He thinks that if you claim any stake in this territory, you have to make objective, supernatural, authoritarian claims about subjective experiences, and that SIMPLY ISN'T TRUE.
He projects these claims onto Britt repeatedly even though she gone out of her way to say that's not how she uses this term.
It's one single hangup. One single point of false assumptions he keeps making as he refutes her points. (tbf to Britt, he also continually assumes she doesn't know what she's talking about in a gross, condescending way.)
Like, that's your shit, man, on both counts. That doesn't have to be the community's shit. Unless, of course, you're taking on outsized authority for a job that needs doing that you're not actually super experienced in... placing your authority above an experienced and educated woman...
...for some reason. 🤔
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
