Spiritual Bypassing: The Work of Anti-Racism in Spiritual Communities
According to a 2020 study by the Pew Center, 63% of Americans still believe that their churches or spiritual communities should avoid addressing day-to-day social and political issues… For its part, the Black church has a long and storied history of using the church to fight for social justice. As of today, Black churchgoers are the only U.S.-based spiritual group which believes that religious groups should express their social and political views (Pew Center, 2020). But where is the rest of the nation? And if we can’t count on Americans to adopt a race-equity lens even when they are attending to their spiritual growth, how can we expect our society to shift?
Continue reading to dig into spiritual bypassing — the tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks. It can sound like: “Talking about racism is divisive,” or “There is no color, we are all one.”
Ultimately, spiritual bypassing speaks to a person’s discomfort and reticence to address a topic that is outside of their comfort zone.
(Thank you to our equity consultant, Suzanne Edwards-Acton, for sharing this resource.)
