Color me behind-the-times, but somewhere in the Web commentary about USA Today's American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) I learned about a cogent label and description of the religious (i.e. "spiritual") beliefs held by many people in the U.S.: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. "Moralistic" refers to the common-sense notion that people should be good and nice, and to the assumption that good people will experience a good afterlife. "Therapeutic" refers to the purpose of spirituality, which is enabling people to live better and more pleasant lives, through learning to love oneself and others enough to carry out constructive, beneficial actions like forgiveness. "Deism" refers to the perceived remoteness and intangibility of the Creator God, whom people acknowledge and beseech from time to time but mostly isn't involved in one's life. The actual perspectives of people I've met are so well captured by this set of ideas that it hurts.
As I've written before on many occassions, I consider Moralistic Therapeutic Deism to be incomplete rather than starkly wrong (although parts of it unmistakably are). God is holy, and it would be great if people followed His lead, so Christianity has its moralistic side. God is overflowing with the power and desire to mend people, so Christianity has its therapeutic side. God is mysterious and perfect in His actions and plans, so Christianity has its deist side. However, it's also true that righteousness is by faith and grace, no person nor the universe itself will be completely restored until the End, and the Spirit who is God's own person is as close and intimate as anyone wishes.
I'd also note that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism isn't necessarily Christian. When God and morality are sufficiently vague, doctrinal distinctions are quite pointless (and impossible). For some, mushy doctrine is part of the allure.
A sampling of the past entries that pertain to the topic:
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