Religion vs. Spirituality vs. Culture

Religion vs Spirituality

What is religion?
I've been wanting to cover this for a while, because people always talk about religion like it's a dirty word. You can look it up for yourself, but this is it in a nutshell. When someone has a religion it is simply a way of doing things the same way all the time according to the requirements of that belief system. For example, I wake up and pray to Olodumare and Ori. After that I go work out and clean up and then I complete the rest of my prayers in a very precise and consistent order every single morning. Most of my prayers are recitations that were given to me or suggested to me by my godmother.

What is spirituality?
Now, this is more my opinion than fact. Spirituality is more based on intuition. Rather than sticking to hard fast rules you follow your Ori. It's like tailoring your practice to you. For example, my husband and I go through our prayers in the same order, pray the same prayers, but we add different things that are unique to us as individuals. Why do we do things differently? Because at some point we felt that we were being guided to do so. For example, he has this whole set up he does with Esu to make sure that Esu is not missing out on any offerings. I make sure that Esu isn't missing out on offerings either, but mine isn't nearly as time consuming as my husband's is. Sometimes, I still takes things to the crossroads for Esu and I feel like I should kunle or kneel. For my husband, he's a little concerned with the neighbors being nosy. Nothing is wrong with either one, because we are doing things as we have been led to.

How to you mix religion and spirituality?
We were talking to our children the other day about the fact that Jesus did Jewish things because he was a Jew. We told them about my husband's friend who is a Christian and practices Jewish Holy Days although he CLEARLY of Afrikan descent. Jews generally would not welcome or expect someone of Afrikan descent to practice their Holy Days. Why? Simple. He ain't Jewish. Furthermore, why would a CHRISTIAN practice JEWISH Holy Days? Because the Christian is of Afrikan descent and hates all things Afrikan so he will go to the extreme to assimilate to cultures that look most like massa. As we talked to the children, we told them that no matter what religion the grew up and practiced there was one thing that BETTER be in their houses. They had BETTER have an Egun shrine. Why? Because we are Afrikan and that's what we do. We stay connected to our past. We seek out that wisdom. We know and acknowledge that the Egun gave birth to us all.

The truth is that religion and spirituality are and have always been mixed. One really doesn't seem to do well without the other. One is about dicipline and one is about intutition. When you mix them together, you get what has become distant memory for most Afrikans. It's call culture.

What is culture?
Marimba Ani says that culture:
Brings us from chaos to order
Binds us to each other
Gives us identity
Gives us a reason for surviving
Tells us who we should live for
Tells us who we should die for if necessary
It's an energy source for thriving
Gives us a sense of security
Puts us into a system of accountability, we are accountable to our ancestors
It reproduces what it is.
It's the way we protect ourselves
It's the immune system of a people

Culture is the wholistic view of ourselves. It involves ALL that we do. It determines what we eat, when we sleep, how we interact with each other, how we raise our children, and even the languages that speak as children and the ones that we later learn. So in short, culture is the point at which our religious and spiritual practices flow into our everyday lives. It's hearing our Godmother ask about and respect food taboos of the people she is cooking for and it's about us respecting the taboos of her house. It's the reason that we teach our children Yoruba language rather than Spanish. The truth is that learning Spanish is simply learning another language of the conqueror that slaughtered yet another group of people that were living at one with God and nature. Of course, that's another post for another day. Culture, is setting food aside for your Egun or cooking just for them. Giving a special them space in your house to keep them close to you. Culture is teaching your children to always respect elders, because there is wisdom to be gained simply from their years on this earth. For us, it's learning our connections to the elements in order to show respect and reject the destruction of Onile. Culture is all these things and more.

The truth is that I shouldn't have titled this "Religion vs. Spirituality vs. Culture" as these things are not in conflict with each other. They are as they should be. They are complements that produce the whole. They aren't to be compartmentalized as that is a Eurocentric view and that is not of us. We are whole beings, not broken, and not intended to be in constant conflict.