Why do you go to Church?
It is not because of the sermon, nor for the music, or even aesthetics which enable you to worship more or less. You go to church for the same reason you do not talk to a forest about life’s meaning and value. Or, you go to church for the same reason that you talk to another person, or make a commitment to another person with witnesses: there is a greater depth to the commitment.
The more we confess in public the more we are formed to that confession. Therefore it is very necessary that the confession be true, so that we do not conform ourselves to the wrong ideas. If no one had heard you speak there is no accountability. I am not convinced that “group mentality” is always a bad thing. It might be how humans are made to be, and given the fall of course it can be distorted. However, it might be a far worse thing to think that we are supposed to be “free” from group mentality and be “individuals”. This sounds more like the desire to be God.
posted by Sasha @ 12:04 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I think it's important to never say "Always (or never)." I remember a few years back when the "Why Wait" campaign was in full swing, and many, many teens made and kept commitments to be abstinent from sex until marriage. My liberal denomination (PCUSA) declined to participate, obstensibly because of its emphasis on conformity and group mentality. And so they threw the baby out with the bathwater, and missed the boat (to mix my metaphors!). And so I think there are times when a group mentality can be quite healthy, as long as each member of the group has thought things through for him or herself first.
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