Cliques & Cults
This is fascinating.
I guess it encourages me that even folks in the most insular sects are questioning. I cheer for skeptics of all kinds.
I feel for the guy. Not that 13 years of Catholic school & life is the same as living as an Orthodox Jew in NYC, but I get how tough it can be to say "ya know, I just don't buy this crap".
Then comes the hard part: Does being a member of a faith mean you must buy into it hook line and sinker? Or can you truly be a member and disagree?
My take: Depends on the faith. Churches that say "you gotta drink the Kool-Aid, or you're not in good standing" chose to exclude folks who don't buy in. So if it takes 2 to tango, if both member and church must agree on member's status, then you can't have your faith and hate it too.
Member: I want to be a part of this, and make it better
Church: You think I'm fat?
Member: I didn't say that, I just said I think you could be better
Church: Get out
If on the other hand, the faith in question is some ultra-tolerant new age happiness cult, you can probably disagree and still be a member.
Member: You are flawed
Church: Dude, that's fine. I still want your money & soul.
Member: Ok, you have cool parties
The question in that case, though, is WTF are you a member of, exactly? Faiths, and most organizations, have creeds/ statements of principles to define who they are and who they are not. And if your belief system is so loosey goosey that you'll take pretty much any one, membership, and identity through membership, get pretty meaningless.
Person 1: I got into Unitarian Universalist
Person 2: She's a slut
Person 1: Well, at least it was good for me
I think there's lots of evidence to suggest that insofar as an institution insists on members drinking the Kool-Aid, the institution is doomed to be unable to adapt, and hence unable to survive and reproduce. Look at Menonites, Orthodox Jews, and the French language. Flip side, check out political parties, and the English language. If you adapt and change, you grow and find new users. If you cling to the old ways and insist the outside world adapt to you, you wither and die.
Ideas and cultures are subject to the same evolutionary forces as critters. Adapt or die off.
I guess it encourages me that even folks in the most insular sects are questioning. I cheer for skeptics of all kinds.
I feel for the guy. Not that 13 years of Catholic school & life is the same as living as an Orthodox Jew in NYC, but I get how tough it can be to say "ya know, I just don't buy this crap".
Then comes the hard part: Does being a member of a faith mean you must buy into it hook line and sinker? Or can you truly be a member and disagree?
My take: Depends on the faith. Churches that say "you gotta drink the Kool-Aid, or you're not in good standing" chose to exclude folks who don't buy in. So if it takes 2 to tango, if both member and church must agree on member's status, then you can't have your faith and hate it too.
Member: I want to be a part of this, and make it better
Church: You think I'm fat?
Member: I didn't say that, I just said I think you could be better
Church: Get out
If on the other hand, the faith in question is some ultra-tolerant new age happiness cult, you can probably disagree and still be a member.
Member: You are flawed
Church: Dude, that's fine. I still want your money & soul.
Member: Ok, you have cool parties
The question in that case, though, is WTF are you a member of, exactly? Faiths, and most organizations, have creeds/ statements of principles to define who they are and who they are not. And if your belief system is so loosey goosey that you'll take pretty much any one, membership, and identity through membership, get pretty meaningless.
Person 1: I got into Unitarian Universalist
Person 2: She's a slut
Person 1: Well, at least it was good for me
I think there's lots of evidence to suggest that insofar as an institution insists on members drinking the Kool-Aid, the institution is doomed to be unable to adapt, and hence unable to survive and reproduce. Look at Menonites, Orthodox Jews, and the French language. Flip side, check out political parties, and the English language. If you adapt and change, you grow and find new users. If you cling to the old ways and insist the outside world adapt to you, you wither and die.
Ideas and cultures are subject to the same evolutionary forces as critters. Adapt or die off.
posted by Kenneth at 2:51 PM
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