In this hit song, Luther gave voice to a whole generation—the Baby Boomers—rebelling against moral certainty and established cultural norms. The song was less about the forbidden love between a married man and another woman and more about claiming the authority to feel, to rebel, and to challenge assumed social obligations.

That was fifty-three years ago. Fast forward to today, and we face a new kind of social contagion, not one of being liberated from inherited constraints, but of the need to be right: “Be on my side, I’ll be on your side. Be on their side, and you’ll never be on my side,” so claims the 2025 “outrage generation.”

It’s not about being kind and compassionate. No. It’s about being right, at any cost.

The Baby Boomers’ rebellious current of uncertainty and questioning spread through protest marches, music, fashion, and film. The polarization embodied in the outrage generation spreads through social media platforms and digital systems that feed their biases.

Social performance and public theater are automatically deemed acts of righteousness and moral virtue, without the need for self-reflection. I address this phenomenon in two essays posted on my everydayspiritualhealth.com website: “Social Media and Cotton Candy,” Parts I and II.

I’ve witnessed firsthand how this polarization plays out among friends and colleagues who take their religious faith seriously.

People who once prayed together, laughed together, and wept together now look upon one another as mortal enemies. Former friends no longer speak, or politely pretend all is okay. Others condemn those who refuse to “take a side,” equating neutrality with cowardice or betrayal of conviction. Even family members of the same faith for decades now point fingers at one another for “being on the wrong side.”

Whether it’s politics, religion, or golf, when the need to be right overrules the need to be kind and compassionate, we’ve lost sight of what it means to connect.

The Baby Boomers’ contagion was the call to unrestrained freedom. The outrage generation might well be suffering from the fever of certainty, what one former Catholic teacher at seminary used to call “the church’s lust for certitude.”

When will we be able to grow beyond our own limited circle of certainty?

In our last essay, we explored how attitude shapes our sense of what it means to live a good life. We found that attitude isn't a single, solid thing—like a rock we bend down to pick up on a mountain hiking trail. Instead, it turns out to be a mix of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that reflect our state of mind.

We took time to reflect on the many attitudes we carry, especially those tied to how we approach life itself. Each one, we realized, brings its own set of consequences.

Today, we turn to something deeper: belief. What we believe quietly defines what we think a good life looks like—and how we go about pursuing it.

A Good Life and The Declaration of Independence

In the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, we encounter a powerful idea: that certain rights—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—belong to us simply by virtue of being human. These rights aren’t granted by government; they precede it.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

This line expresses a deep belief in personal freedom—the right to choose our careers, relationships, and spiritual paths without interference. But the authors didn’t stop there. They understood that freedom without protection can be fragile, even dangerous. So, they insisted that governments exist only to protect these rights, and that power must come from the people themselves:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

The framers recognized that if government fails in this role, it’s not just our right—it’s our responsibility—to change it. That’s belief, not just policy: a vision of what a good life requires, and how it must be defended.

Belief In Inalienable Rights and the U.S. Constitution

When the framers ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1787, they did so with a clear-eyed belief: human beings are prone to self-interest, and power tends to corrupt. They envisioned a government strong enough to maintain peace and order, yet limited enough to prevent tyranny. To strike this balance, they created a system of checks and balances, anchored by a separation of powers. The goal was to keep any one person—or group—from dominating the whole.

Shaped by their conflict with England and steeped in the values of the European Enlightenment, the framers understood the dual nature of humanity. They sought to elevate the better angels of our nature while placing guardrails around its darker impulses—greed, ambition, and misdirected self-interest. As James Madison put it in Federalist No. 51:
"If men were angels, no government would be necessary."

Do We Need a “Governor Switch” To Live a Good Life?

When I was a senior in high school, our band took a long, achy school bus ride from Plattsburgh to Buffalo. Eight hours of bouncing in seats that felt more like medieval torture benches than transportation. Somewhere around hour four, I wandered to the front of the bus and asked the driver,
“Can you drive any faster?”

He squinted through bird splatter on the windshield and said, “I’d like to. But the school installed a governor switch—I’m capped at sixty.”

I blinked. “What’s a governor switch?”

“It’s a device that stops the bus from going over a certain speed. Once I hit sixty, it cuts off extra fuel so I can’t go faster—even if I wanted to. Keeps us from ending up in a ditch full of teenagers, I guess.”

Back in my seat, I thought about that. It felt unfair to restrict a driver who wanted to go faster—but it also made sense. Not every driver can be trusted to handle more speed responsibly.

I think some of our beliefs work the same way. They act like a governor switch—quietly limiting how fast or far we go, not to restrict our freedom, but to keep us, and others, safe on the ride.

Two Competing Beliefs on How to Live a Good Life

Two influential thinkers offer competing views on what it means to live a good life within society.

The first comes from the 19th-century English philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill. In On Liberty, he writes:

…The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their effort to obtain it…

Mill championed the individual. He believed people should be free to move, grow, and build their lives as they see fit—so long as they don't harm others. No government, he argued, has the right to restrict that freedom without cause.

Emile Durkheim, the 19th-century French sociologist, saw things differently. Society, he believed, isn't just a loose contract between free individuals. It’s a living system that depends on cohesion, shared values, and social responsibility.

Left entirely to our own devices, Durkheim warned, we tend to chase shallow pleasures or self-interest—often to the detriment of the greater good. A truly functioning society must apply pressure: not to oppress, but to guide.

From this perspective, limits on autonomy aren’t threats to freedom—they’re tools for shaping character and reinforcing the social fabric.

Murder And the Obsessed Teenage Video Gamer

Sometimes, extreme examples help clarify the stakes. More than twenty years ago, in England, a 14-year-old boy was brutally murdered by a 17-year-old who, according to friends and family, was obsessed with a violent video game called Manhunt. The game encourages players to carry out gruesome killings. The murder bore eerie similarities to actions in the game.

What would Mill say about this? Of course, he would never condone murder. He argued for personal freedom—so long as it causes no harm to others. But this tragedy shows the limits of that principle in practice.

How did this teenager become so detached from society that he could see life as a private, isolated existence—disconnected from others? And what about the game itself, marketed to adults but accessed by minors?

When people are left entirely to pursue their own version of a “good life” without guidance or accountability, the consequences can be catastrophic. A belief system that honors only personal desire, without anchoring it to something larger—community, meaning, responsibility—can slowly unravel a life.

No grounded, healthy teenager with a sense of belonging and purpose behaves this way. Something deeper failed here. And belief, or the absence of it, played a role.

Where Do Our Beliefs Come From?

Our beliefs don’t come out of nowhere. We shape them through personal experience and the culture we swim in—often without realizing it.

I’ve known people who see no issue with sleeping with married partners—whether they’re single themselves or married, too. Others treat sex like a scoreboard, chasing numbers instead of connection.

Whether we realize it or not, these choices reveal what we believe about relationships, responsibility, and the worth of another human being.

Beliefs run deeper than attitudes. They shape how we see ourselves, how we interpret the world, and how we relate to others. Like the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, who believed he lacked courage—and acted accordingly—we live out the consequences of what we believe, whether true or not.

Conclusion

It’s worth taking time now and then to examine our beliefs. Some may be outdated. Others might have quietly shifted without our noticing. And some still serve us—but deserve a second look.

That’s why I created a Belief Inventory Practice Exercise—to help you reflect on what you truly believe, and how those beliefs shape your life.

You can work through it at your own pace. You might be surprised at what rises to the surface.

Until next time—here’s to your Spiritual Health!

Belief Inventory Practice: What Do I Really Believe?

Step 1: Identify the Life Domains -Write down these core areas of life:

Self-worth & identity

Relationships & love

Work & purpose

Money & security

Health & the body

God/Spirit/Life

Suffering & injustice

Death & what comes after

Step 2: Free-write what you believe (no filter). For each domain, complete the sentence: "I believe that..." Write 2-3 beliefs for each area, even if they contradict each other. Be honest - write what you feel you believe, not what you should believe.

Step 3: Ask: Where did this belief come from? Next to each belief, write: "I got this from..." (parents, culture, religion, trauma, teacher, experience, intuition, etc.)

Step 4: Ask: Is this belief helpful? Next to each belief, write: "This belief makes me feel _______."- "This belief leads me to act _______."- "Is this belief true? Always? For everyone?" Then mark: (OK) = Belief is aligned and empowering. Mark (!) = Belief may be limiting, outdated, or unexamined

Step 5: Replace or reframe: For (!) beliefs, ask: "What could I believe instead - something truer, kinder, and more empowering?" Write new affirming or empowering beliefs where it feels right.

Step 6: Choose 1 belief to live from this week. Pick one new or clarified belief and commit to living as if it were completely true for 7 days. Write it down. Post it somewhere. Watch how it changes your choices.

Our last essay argued that one’s idea about how to live a good life is tied to hidden cultural influences and it’s important to be aware of them. In today’s essay, we dive into the role attitude plays in forming one’s idea about living a good life.

You Got a Bad Attitude!

What is attitude, anyway? Here’s one definition from the online American Heritage Dictionary:

A manner of thinking, feeling, or behaving that reflects a state of mind or disposition.

This definition indicates a complex set of factors at play that influence one’s attitude. Attitude isn’t a single solid thing, like a rock we bend down to pick up off the ground while walking along on a hiking trail in the woods.

Attitude And Kimchee

Some attitudes form quicker than others, like the first time I ate spicy Korean pickled cabbage, kimchee. As soon as I began chewing the first bite, it felt like tiny, hot, unpleasant jolts of electricity were zapping the roof of my mouth and tip of my tongue! I’ll never touch this stuff again. I hate it! I cried out in my mind, as I wriggled uncomfortably in my chair while spitting the kimchee back on my plate. I felt it would be impossible to ever like this Korean vegetable. My lips started to tingle and go numb, reminding me of the time when a small yellow jacket, hidden inside a soda can I’d opened and left out on my desk, stung my lower lip just as I lifted the can for another sip.

Prior to eating kimchee, I’d never tried any kind of Asian food, except Chinese, not known for spicy foods. Growing up in America, my taste buds were familiar with mildly seasoned food, sweet tasting desserts, and sugary soda drinks. (Yikes!) As I got more familiar with Korean culture and cuisine, I learned kimchee is supposed to be eaten in combination with rice, vegetables, and meat, not as a stand-alone item. I learned the rice absorbs some of the acidic, spicy elements of this pickled cabbage, and the vegetables and meat help round out the overall taste of the kimchee.

Armed with this new information, I decided to put it into practice and braved another shot at eating kimchee. To my surprise, I enjoyed the taste much more than the first time. No burning, numbing sensation in my mouth or on my lips. Bit by bit, over the next few weeks, I was able to cultivate a refined taste for this once-abhorred Korean cuisine. Oddly enough, after six months, I found myself always wanting to consume kimchee whenever I went to a Korean restaurant. I was surprised at how much my attitude changed from the time I first bit into kimchee, swearing to myself I’d never touch the stuff again.

Stepping back and being willing to reconsider my initial experience with kimchee allowed me to gain new knowledge and insight on how to eat it. I was able to alter my attitude by one hundred eighty degrees, moving from one of repulsion to one of hearty embrace. Conversely, someone might decide after an unpleasant experience eating kimchee to never go near the stuff again, or any other kind of Asian food. Each attitude we form is always accompanied by resultant consequences. Hopefully, the attitudes we form throughout life allow us to experience our version of what it means to live a good life.

Attitude and Living a Good Life

Taking periodic inventory of the attitudes we’ve come to hold in life is probably a good idea. Doing so gives us a chance to reflect, reconsider, and maybe adjust mindsets or behaviors we’ve come to reflexively hold that may be hindering our ability to live a good life.

Here’s a short checklist to work with if you’d like to do an attitude inventory check:

· Is there someone in my life—past or present—who hurt me that I feel I never want to talk to or see again?

· How many times during the day do I listen to negative self-talk about myself that convinces me I will never be able to live the kind of life I want to?

· Right now, do I have a clear picture of the steps I need to take to live the kind of life I believe I deserve to live?

Conclusion

The desire to live a good life is the aim of all of us. I can’t think of anyone who gets up in the morning wishing to lose something or end up worse off at the end of the day. Awareness of how our attitudes impact our desire to live a good life can potentially lead us to change or adjust our mindset or behavior, if needed.

Next time we will explore the role beliefs play in shaping and influencing our desire to live a good life.

Until then—here’s to your spiritual health!

Our last series of essays explored the following three primary facets of human life related to spiritual health: meaning-making, life purpose, and awareness of well-being. If you haven’t already, I hope you will take the time to read them, as this will help you get a feel for where we are headed in today’s essay. In this essay, we will explore how culture shapes an individual’s ideas and attitudes about what it means to live a good life, and how this impacts one’s spiritual health.

The Idea of Living a Good Life

If you were born in the year 1900 and raised in the Borena region of Ethiopia, what would a good life look like? How about present-day South Korea? What about North Korea? Or in various parts of Europe and North America? Going back two hundred years to 1825, how would the concept of a good life in these areas compare to 2025? Each of these regions carries particular cultural, economic, and geographic pressures that effect how one makes decisions on how to live a good life.

In the United States, since its inception, the idea of living a good life is tied to notions about individual freedom and the inherent, God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In present-day America, personal achievement and self-actualization are key markers to the fulfillment of living a good life. It’s likely this idea will continue to remain a powerful cultural norm that impacts one’s notion on how to live a meaningful life.

In contrast, today’s more orthodox Islamic societies in places like the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, emphasize different ideas about what it means to live a good life. Core Islamic values—obedience, surrender to God, family responsibilities, social justice, and charity—shape individuals’ understanding about living a good life. The Qur’an, Islam’s sacred text, places these ideas and values at the forefront of one’s life, compelling individuals to see themselves primarily in relation to societal and family duties.

Other places where Islamic communities are growing—such as Europe, North America, and Latin America—experience a more diverse and nuanced approach between their faith practice and the Western ideals and values of individualism, democracy, and human rights.

Where Do Your Beliefs and Values Come From?

No one is the sole arbitrator of their personal beliefs and values. If you live in America, you might think your current ideas and beliefs about how to live a good life are the result of autonomous, free, individual choices. However, I find this notion questionable at best. No one escapes the hidden cultural influences that help shape our views and attitudes about self and how to live a fulfilled life.

Swimming in a Sea of Ideas and Attitudes

A fish swimming in the ocean is unaware of many elements that make its survival possible—salt concentration, oxygen levels, and pH balance, to name a few. Similarly, individuals living in the United States (and elsewhere) are often unaware of invisible cultural forces that shape their attitudes and concept about the meaning of a good life.

Just like a patient wants to get to the bottom of the cause and source of their undiagnosed disease, we want to dive deeper to see what kind of hidden values and beliefs have been shaping our decisions and attitudes about living a fulfilled life.

Conclusion

In our next series of essays, we’ll explore three primary factors influencing our current understanding of what it means to live a good life: beliefs, attitudes, and values.

Until next time—Here’s to your spiritual health!!

Today, we are discussing letter P in the acronym MPA. P stands for “purpose of life.” MPA is the three-letter acronym we’ve been exploring in our two recently published essays. In these essays we looked at the letter M that stands for “meaning making,” and the letter A that stands for “awareness of wellbeing.

Life Purpose…?

Have you ever asked: What is the purpose of my life? I imagine you’ve mulled over this question at one time or another, right? Asking about life’s purpose is unique to the human species.

Is there any animal that ponders a question about their existence? To date, scientists conclude animals lack the cognitive ability to ask an abstract question like: What’s my purpose for being on this planet, anyway? However, there is no question animals exist on earth for a purpose such as survival, reproduction of the species, and impacting the natural environment. What about animals and the idea of love?

Different branches of science (evolutionary biology, neuroscience, psychology) engage in on-going debate about whether or not animals exhibit love comparable to human love. There is no “scientific proof” one way or the other about such matters, and it comes down to one’s subjective view of life and the universe. To properly direct our lives, each of us needs to get a handle on our sense of life purpose.

The god Question and Life Purpose

Is there a transcendent or divine will humans are designed to connect with, or is the universe a meaningless, incomprehensible reality where we carve out our own interpretations about what matters in life and how to live? Must we answer to anyone or anything other than our own carefully crafted narrative about what is real, right or wrong, or what matters in life?

Millions of individuals create a sense of purpose without reference to a divine will, instead understanding their purpose through lived experience and making contributions to better society. There is no inherent need to “believe in god,” an idea lacking any credible evidence, so say the agnostics and atheists. On the other hand, millions claim it is impossible to understand one’s life purpose without believing in an all-powerful deity in charge of the world and who directs our lives.

Getting Clear About Life Purpose

The first essay published in Spiritual Health Magazine dealt with how, at the age of seventeen, I experienced for the first time a desire to understand my life purpose:

The untimely death of my Uncle Ancel at just fifty-six years old confused me, especially the way he had to suffer for a year with that vicious and devilish cancer. Why am I on this earth, anyway? What is the purpose of my life? Is there a spiritual world people live in after they die? These were the questions constantly buzzing in my head as a seventeen-year-old preparing to start his senior year in high school.

Regardless of where you are at about your sense of life purpose, it’s well worth taking time to reflect on this area of your life. Why? Lacking a clear sense of life purpose can negatively affect your emotions, physical health, mental health, and social relationships. Trying to live without a clear sense of life purpose is like navigating a boat without a rudder—shifting aimlessly, at the mercy of the wind and water.

Self-reflective Activity

If you want greater clarity about your purpose for life, here are a few suggestions to consider moving forward:

1. Check out what world religious traditions say about life purpose. Start with Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Look for major themes or threads interwoven in these traditions and consider how such themes might inform your sense of life purpose.

2. Reflect on how your current view(s) on life purpose are shaped by prior experiences and learning. Consider whether or not those influences have been helpful or detrimental to you.

3. Make a commitment to invest time and energy to focus on this area of your life.

4. Talk with trusted friends to see how they approach this topic.

5. Begin compiling in your writing journal a working list of benefits and rewards associated with a healthy sense of life purpose.

Conclusion

The benefits and rewards to possessing a clear sense of life purpose and acting on it are multifaceted. Immediately start working on this component of the MPA acronym and look forward to a richer, more rewarding life.

Don’t hurry the process or judge yourself for not instantly coming up with satisfactory answers to this question. Take your time and enjoy the process!

We’ve concluded exploring the MPA acronym as a way to help get started with a spiritual health program. The three components represented by this acronym, meaning making, purpose of life, and awareness of overall wellbeing, are the grounding you need to begin to pay more attention to nurturing your spiritual health.

Let me know how you feel and what you think about this approach to spiritual health. I look forward to hearing back from you with suggestions, expanded ideas, critiques, etc.

Until next time—here’s to your spiritual health!