The mystics say you can find God anywhere. I believe many women have found him in “Fifty Shades of Grey.” The trilogy has sold more than 10 million copies, mostly to women over 30 who can’t put the books down. Publishing rights have been sold in 37 countries and movie rights have been secured by Universal. Even British hotelier, Jonathan Denby, has decided to remove all the Gideon Bibles from his hotel's 40 rooms and replace them with the book in the Damson Dene Hotel in the Lake District of England. The books chronicle the relationship between a dominating male entrepreneur, Christian Grey, and a young female college graduate, the submissive Anastasia Steele. The series has been mulled by many writers who have debated whether or not this is a setback for women, to be attracted to a submissive relationship, or a breakthrough, to be able to openly read and discuss a book so sexually explicit that it is often referred to in the media as “mommy porn.” I think the “Fifty Shades” phenomenon is a thinly veiled rewrite of religion. Not religion in the conventional sense of the word, but in how we are redefining faith practices today as more and more people, especially women, shun man-made traditions yet continue to yearn for religious experiences. Something, yet again, to reassure those afraid of the unknown.

Diana Butler Bass writes in “Christianity After Religion,” that millions of people share her story “of growing up in a formal religion, finding that somehow chilly or distant, and rediscovering God through a mystical experience.” She continues, “Religion morphed from an external set of rules into a vibrant spiritual experience of God. Somehow the word religion did not seem quite adequate to explain what had happened.” Never before have there been more “seekers” who are not satisfied with the religion they grew up practicing, those who are possibly secular but want