I wonder if this piece resonates with folks who have not been brought up in religious traditions and they are discovering these sentiments for the first time?

Well, that may apply to some. Personally, I've felt the sentiments of this song for as long as I was spiritually aware (from about 8 or so). The song resonates with me not just because of the sentiment of the lyric, or the meanings of the words, but also the rhythms, and play between the vowel sounds and consonants: "Balanced at the brink of wisdom" has a wonderful musical sound to it even when spoken as is.

As for the melody and baseline being borrowed... that is the case with so much folk music, I don't really see how that, in and of itself makes the song weaker.

And I raised with "real" folk music too, both traditional and political.

(I was raised in the Quaker tradition, btw, which is a religion that supports political action as much as a connection with God.)