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Devotional Practices Are Core To World Religions – And Fan Culture – But They Are No Longer For Me | Jackie Bailey

The ‘power of love’, as Celine Dion sang, keeps devotion at the centre of worship. Now that I’ve left behind institutional religion, it feels blasphemous

• Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life

When I was a high schooler, it was the done thing to write the name of your favourite band on your school backpack, broadcasting your allegiances and through them assert your identity. Canvas bags were festooned with the lightning font of AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, lined up outside classrooms as far as the eye could see. And then there was my bag, with “Life is God” in big bubble writing along the flap, the smell of the permanent marker filling my head with the feeling of floating heavenwards on the wings of truth.

I was prepared to be scorned, spat upon, ridiculed. There was nothing I wanted more than to be persecuted, like the early Christians, in order to prove my devotion to God.

Jackie Bailey is the author of The Eulogy, the winner of the 2023 NSW Premier’s literary multicultural award. When not writing, she works as a funeral celebrant and pastoral care practitioner, helping families navigate death and dying

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Devotional Practices Are Core To World Religions – And Fan Culture – But They Are No Longer For Me | Jackie Bailey

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