Each person has a sacred, personal, eternal part of themselves that never dies.  That part of them is powerful and authentic.  Even if someone chooses not to acknowledge or nurture the spiritual part of themselves, it is still there.  It is involved in every thought they think, every decision they make, every emotion they feel.  It is the essence of who they are.  Coming to understand this potent part of the self is a lifelong undertaking.  It is exciting and fulfilling, and is each person's holy calling.

We believe that religious institutions, rather than increasing human beings' understanding of their spiritual nature and freeing them to enjoy and express that nature, have sought to control the free exercise of personal spirituality.  While each individual enjoys a rich, colorful spiritual existence through their own personal interaction with the cosmos, religious institutions have sought to define and control that interaction by asserting that only through a particular religion or church can the truth be found.  We reject this belief.

Each person alone contains everything needed for a fulfilling and successful spiritual existence.  We assert that a person does not need a church, clergyperson, or other trappings of organized religion to be healthy and whole spiritually.  The universe and its creator provide all that is needed personally to each individual.

Of course, if one wants to meet together with others for spiritual fellowship and for joint progress toward common goals, this is good for those who want it.  However, when a group gets together, an institution is often inevitably formed.  As long as the group does not try to control the personal spirituality of the individual, it may serve a useful purpose.  But as soon as the group starts trying to define who is allowed to be a member and how they must behave to be a member, when people start being labeled as acceptable and not acceptable, the group is no longer useful.

For legal purposes, we assert that one does not have to be a member of an "organized" religion to have religious beliefs.  One does not have to be a member of a church to have spirituality which should be recognized.  A person's own individual spiritual beliefs are valid whether they are embraced by or taught by a recognized religious body or not.  This is because our spirituality arises from our own personal relationship with God/the universe, and not from our relationship with a religious institution.

Judie C. Rall of the Center for Unhindered Living, is an Ordained Ministers of the Temple of Earth, a logic-based, non-religious, spiritual organization.