Joan
Patterson July 31, 2015
Las Vegas
Review-Journal
During a time when every societal shift is sliced
into wedges of data by the latest research poll, religion has been
boiled down to how often we sit in the pews, how much we pray, even
if we are "absolutely certain" to "not at all certain" about a
belief in God.
What can quickly get pushed aside is the larger
picture. Older adults, for example, are far more likely to claim a
religion than their children or grandchildren, according to
studies. But even the most cursory search of the Internet shows
that the big takeaway from all the number crunching is that 20- and
30-somethings somehow need to be won over.
The nuances of faith among the most devoted
generations — what religion brings to their lives, even how they
find a sense of the spiritual — end up getting lost.
Robert Atchley, a professor of gerontology emeritus
who served as director of the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami
University in Ohio, had what he calls his first "epiphany" on this
subject years ago while interviewing dozens of older, retired women
for a research project.
His plan was to see how they were adapting to their
lives after leaving the workforce, yet he quickly realized there
was something going on that he wanted to bottle up and keep for
himself.
"They knew who they were, they were totally
comfortable in their own being, they knew what they wanted out of
life and how to get it. I mean, I came away from doing interviews
with a hundred or so of those people and I said, "Whatever it is
they've got, I want some of it,'" Atchley recalled.
Part of being comfortable in their own skin, he
found, was living with a sense of the spiritual. As time wore on,
he began to study the issue at length and in 2009 released a book
called "Spirituality and Aging" (Johns Hopkins University
Press).
As adults age, the way they see their religion and
how it resonates in their lives often becomes more personal, he
said. They might pick and choose what's most important to them in
their religious beliefs and practices, or enjoy a stronger
connection with their religious community.
Elements of their religion also may provide more
comfort than ever before and a deeper spiritual connection, or
transcending the self and connecting with a higher power and/or the
sacred, he said. There also can be a sort of moment-to-moment
spirituality that finds more meaning in the everyday, whether it's
through nature, music, community work, meditation or other
means.
"There's a concept called gerotranscendence; it's
the idea that as people get older they tend to be drawn to a much
more transcendent perspective about what they're up to and what's
going on. It doesn't mean you're off in never-never land, it means
that you are actually present in a way that you weren't when your
head was running everything a mile a minute," he said.
In her work looking at the issue of aging and
resiliency, Lydia Manning, director of the Center for Gerontology
at Concordia University in Chicago, noted that spirituality emerged
as an important factor in the aging process. She has found that
older adults often use their religious faith and spirituality as
tools for helping them manage adversity.
During one study on resiliency, she interviewed 64
older adults, and only 19 reported that spirituality or religion
were not part of how they negotiated through life's struggles. Even
hardships such as serious illness or the death of a loved one were
often seen as "invitations to strengthen their spiritual muscle,"
whether it was through practices such as prayer, meditation or
connecting with others in their spiritual community, she
said.
In 2012, Manning published the findings of another
study focusing on spiritual resilience. It included multiple
interviews with six women in their 80s, five who identified as
Christians and one who was Unitarian Universalist. What she found
was a sense of purpose and the ability to reframe their hardships
into opportunities to practice a gratitude that was "expressed in
connection with their spirituality and personal relationship with
God."
In terms of how individual faith is molded and
shaped as time goes on, there is no easy answer, according to the
experts. For some older adults, attending worship services can be a
means of strong social and spiritual support. The baby boomers,
they add, are going to continue to redefine societal norms,
including what it means to be spiritual or religious.
Vernon Towne, a retired Presbyterian pastor of 40
years who most recently served at Mountain View Presbyterian Church
in Sun City Summerlin, noted that the evolution of someone's
religious or spiritual life is very personal and comes down to
individual experiences, their level of faith, values and
beliefs.
There is little doubt, however, that growing older
brings forth the big questions of mortality, including one's
relationship to God. Sometimes this means turning to particular
doctrines and rituals of a religion that have held a deep meaning
in the past, he said.
Towne, who is 73, also points to a growth in the
day-to-day spiritual aspects of faith as we age or at least more of
an awareness of the "divine," whether it's in the present or the
past. In his own life, the spiritual has come through in moments of
silent prayer and meditation, divine coincidences, even the beauty
of a thunderstorm, he said.
For his wife, Margaret, who holds a doctorate in
education and has taught both critical thinking and
science-and-religion courses during her career, faith is a lifetime
journey that continues, no matter one's age. The gift of growing
older is having the time to discuss it with others, explore its
mysteries and hang on to a sense of humility that comes from not
having all the answers, she said.
"There's so much we don't understand, I guess that's
where the (expression), 'You do it by faith,' comes from, because
you don't have the knowledge. So I think the humility of just being
able to say, 'I have to leave it in the Lord's hands, I don't know
this, I have to trust him and have faith.'"
The idea that religion and spirituality are anything
but static holds true for others.
Sandra Dunn, Women's Division region leader with the
Las Vegas SGI Buddhist center, has seen her own spirituality evolve
into something that holds more of a "preciousness and profundity"
at the age of 53 than it did when she was younger, she
said.
She grew up in a Buddhist home, but it has been the
joys and struggles of life that have given her a clearer
understanding of her faith. The daily prayers and chanting are
precious moments of self-reflection, she said, but it's the belief
that she has the ability to transform her life in positive ways
that is continually unfolding.
"You start to realize, you know, anything can be a
bad or good situation, anything can be positive or negative. It's
really how we look at it and how we choose to pursue that with our
behavior," she said.
"My mom, who is 82, her life is so carefree, I can't
imagine not wanting to be like that at her age," she added. "I
guess the quality of life is what really attracts me (to Buddhism).
As I get older, I see these examples in my life of people who are
strong believers, strong practitioners."
Sitting in the living room of their northwest Las
Vegas home, Binnie and Clay Wilkin talked about the way their
Unitarian Universalist religion embraces principles that only
resonate more and more as time goes by. For them, spirituality is
about a personal search for what rings true to the individual,
including the exploration of different faiths.
Binnie was already what she calls a "Christian-based
spiritual voyager" before she started attending Unitarian
Universalist services with her husband about 10 years ago. "Once we
establish that there is one truth, that means that our life is
built on rejecting other truths, and it's the one thing about
traditional religions that has disturbed me all these years,"
Binnie said.
As an interracial couple, their lives have been a
reflection of being open to differences and the acceptance of
varying ways of seeing the world. When asked what they considered
the most important principle of their religion, Clay, who is 86,
immediately pointed to a belief in the "interconnectedness of all
life."
Another theme in the conversation was the continual
desire to learn.
"I'm not in a position of power to affect great
changes, but sometimes it's what you can do if you simply could
talk to somebody and pass on something that may be of value to
them, and also to take from them what may be of value to you, and
that's a lifelong thing, it doesn't end," Clay said.