#honestly i'd probably have been better off posting that lewis quote about the hymns

[fictionadventurer]

Actually, religion is about community.

Spirituality is about you and God.

Religion is about how you apply those spiritual beliefs on a larger scale, and how you worship and live as a group with those shared beliefs.

"It's just between me and God " is how you get those "spiritual but not religious" people. Religion has to involve a wider community with shared beliefs and rituals.

Man was not made to be alone. Interacting with our fellow humans is a vital part of our spiritual lives. We can't just shut out other people because we don't like them. You don't have to be bestest friends holding hands and singing songs in one big happy "church family". But you are a part of the same group whether you like it or not, and you have a duty to love those people. Being part of a community within a religion keeps you from becoming self-centered, reminds you that there are other people with other ways of relating to God, whose example and insights can help you become holier than you might have been on your own.

Religion often naturally creates a community--sharing beliefs creates a common ground between people that those outside the group can't share. Religion also gives us the framework for how we're supposed to use our beliefs to engage with the wider community as citizens of the world.

Fellowship can't replace a personal spirituality. Making the community the main draw of a religion can make for a vapid, soulless group. But religion has to involve some kind of interaction as a group to qualify for the name, and community is an important way to make our personal spirituality have a real effect on the world.