When I lather up in a hotel shower, I have to rinse again and again. I hate that slimy hotel soft water feeling on my skin. I grew up with hard water. I prefer that squeaky-clean feeling, even though it’s caused by that soap residue left on my skin by hard water. I know it’s silly. I understand the chemistry. I’m actually less clean with hard water, but I still like that squeaky feeling.

It’s easy to get caught up in religious rituals that leave a squeaky residue of piety while bringing us no closer to the Divine. Religion and spirituality are not the same thing. While religion brings some closer to their divine nature, it clearly leaves others with nothing more than a misleading residue.

Piety can be insidious and pervasive. Why aren’t houses of worship filled with sinners, partiers and criminals, all sitting next to the outcasts, marginalized and rejected? It’s because hanging out with the ‘holy’ is not safe for them. They’re not wanted. They’re not welcome. They’re not loved. If they were, they’d come. All that rhetoric about the righteous or rebellious, saint or sinner, damned or exalted, us or them, must go. You can’t be chosen, favored or elect while looking down on those you view as less.

Religion should lead souls to a relationship with their Devine Source, not supplant that relationship with ritual. One cannot substitute divine connection with overzealous religion. I’m not opposed to religion—it has value—but don’t mistake religious residue for divine connection.