Talk amongst yourselves...
Talking points that are rattling around in my head:
I have a new theory that despite what all the non-conformist movies of the last 3 decades have been trying to tell us - People like legalism. They like rules. They like people to just give them a nice little list of what they can and cannot do and to go on thier merry way. Witness the popularity of Mormonism, Catholicism, etc. vs., say, the Quakers. Even within the Protestant church you have denominations everywhere you turn and what is a denomination but a group that says we believe you have to believe/follow X doctrine to really be a Christian? Even in secular circles you have all these How-To books and self-help books giving 10 rules for doing such and such thing. People like things to be easy. Freespiritedness is not easy. It's complicated and messy. I don't think most people like complicated and messy.
Ah Ha! I'm being controversial! Not intentionally so, but this was just sticking in my head today.
I have a new theory that despite what all the non-conformist movies of the last 3 decades have been trying to tell us - People like legalism. They like rules. They like people to just give them a nice little list of what they can and cannot do and to go on thier merry way. Witness the popularity of Mormonism, Catholicism, etc. vs., say, the Quakers. Even within the Protestant church you have denominations everywhere you turn and what is a denomination but a group that says we believe you have to believe/follow X doctrine to really be a Christian? Even in secular circles you have all these How-To books and self-help books giving 10 rules for doing such and such thing. People like things to be easy. Freespiritedness is not easy. It's complicated and messy. I don't think most people like complicated and messy.
Ah Ha! I'm being controversial! Not intentionally so, but this was just sticking in my head today.
1 Comments:
At 10:31 AM, David N. Scott said…
People like rules... look at the success of Islam in postmodern societies for a good example.
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