ABSTRACT
The number of CGS women is impossible to estimate. However, like the small sample of eclectic Mormon women (“Morwics”) studied by John W. Morehead, this phenomenon within Christianity “is likely not as small as some might think (or hope), and they will likely continue to raise serious questions and pose serious challenges . . . in the twenty-fi rst century.” 1 As discussed in the last chapter, CGS offers psycho-spiritual benefi ts to many of its practitioners, as well as functioning as a viable religious option. Moreover, although CGS practitioners often experience, or live in apprehension of, disapproval and discrimination because of their faith orientation, CGS has shown considerable staying power since its early expressions in the 1980s and early 1990s (e.g., Defecting in Place , Reimagining), to its development into identifi able quasi-denominations in subsequent decades (chapter 5). This chapter will discuss the interviewees’ statements of attachment to CGS as a legitimate religious preference, and their hopes for the future of their spirituality, and attempt to place CGS, and its prospects, within the framework of social scientifi c theories of Christianity and alternative spiritualities in the twenty-fi rst century.
