Nothing scares me more than a group of people who all believe the same thing. Let me amend that: nothing scares me more than a group of people who all 1.) believe all of the same things 2.) want to believe all of the same things, 3.) believe that believing in all of the same things is beneficial, and 4.) believe there is, ultimately, just one way to believe.
What scares me is a group of people—any group, regardless of political, religious, cultural or national persuasion—whose main goal is conformity in the name of unity. Conformity and unity are two very different animals. I’ll let freedictionary.com introduce the two words, even though I know it’s cliché and, generally, very lame. Still:
con·form·i·ty
1. Similarity in form or character; agreement
2. Action or behavior in correspondence with socially accepted standards, conventions, rules, or laws
3. Geology: the relationship between adjacent layers of sedimentary rock
u·ni·ty
1. The state or quality of being one; singleness.
2. The state or quality of being in accord; harmony.
3. a. The combination or arrangement of parts into a whole; unification. b. A combination or union thus formed.
4. Singleness or constancy of purpose or action; continuity
5. a. An ordering of all elements in a work of art or literature so that each contributes to a unified aesthetic effect. b. The effect thus produced.
6. One of the three principles of dramatic structure derived by French neoclassicists from Aristotle’s Poetics, stating that a drama should have but one plot, which should take place in a single day and be confined to a single locale.
7. Mathematics a. The number 1. b. See identity element.
Assuming we can toss conformity definition 3 (though, if I had a bit more time and you had a bit more interest, I would love to work it in), as well as unity definition 7 (even though, metaphorically, it illustrates a beautiful point…if I understood mathematics better, I would probably think it even more beautiful), we have a pretty good base to start with.
Conformity requires sameness and agreement. It requires obedience to socially accepted standards and conventions. It means, to me, to act, think, speak and feel “the same.”
Conformity is what I think of when I see politicians and voters blindly adopt their party’s platform. Conformity is the underlying principal that makes me barf when I scan volumes upon volumes of text prescribing proper dress code for women, proper emotional expressions of men, and proper worship style and behavior of all Christians.
They all get me gagging, but let’s talk about that last one: proper worship style and behavior of all Christians. What I am not talking about is basic tenements of the faith: that God exists, created the world, sent his Son to save it, requires us to live a life of love for God and our neighbor, and has the sole power to forgive us of our sins. What I am talking about is everything in between.
For example: “A true Christian will not drink.” “A true Christian will never swear.” “A true Christian doesn’t wear high heels.” “A true Christian is not gay.” “A true Christian will never have premarital sex.” “A true Christian follows everything their Christian leader says.” “A true Christian does not believe in Evolution.” “A true Christian knows AIDS is God’s punishment for sexual deviants.” “And the way we can tell you are a true Christian is that you believe what every other true Christian believes; you say what every other true Christian says.”
These statements may sound absurd. Of course, to me, they are. I even get a little annoyed with Paul in the Bible sometimes for some rules that he seems, to me, to pull out of personal conviction and preference. I hope that isn’t blasphemous.
The Pharisees, who led many astray and placed burdens on people that they were never meant to carry, were about conformity. Christ, from what I can tell, and what I believe, is about unity.
Unity does not necessarily imply sameness. It doesn’t really care about agreement. What it does care about, what it IS about, is harmony, singleness, oneness, the “combination or arrangement of parts into a whole.” And it is when those parts, and parts implying difference, join in “singleness or constancy of purpose or action,” that they are unified—they are one.
In the book of John, Jesus prays:
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23
Conformity breaks people apart. Because if one does not conform to a group that requires it, the non-conformist is bashed and banished. Look at any Christian sect, ask them why they split from their head Church, and their answer is almost always a list of conforming principles. The answer is mostly not directly related to a differing belief about the supremacy of God, the reality of Jesus, or the need to love God and our neighbor. Sometimes is it. More often, it’s about style of worship, dress, atmosphere, or any other personal preference that people confuse with the Law of God.
Conformity also makes Christians stagnant. When a level of conformity is reached, and all “wayward thinkers” purged, disagreement ceases (not really, but on the surface it seems to). When disagreement ceases, thinking ceases as well. What’s there to think about? We know it all already. And, when thinking ceases, growth ceases—both spiritual and intellectual. I never thought more than when I moved away from home, away from like-minded people, and was forced to confront my beliefs. I also never grew more than in those moments.
Unlike conformity, unity encourages growth by bringing different people together. If one does not agree with the group—if the group, itself does not come to consensus on every little thing—it doesn’t matter. What matters is to unity is harmony. What matters is all of God’s individual instruments coming together to create the most beautiful music. A symphony of difference. A score rich in tone and varying in pace. A song and life of discussion and multiple perspectives. It’s a life and existence that is never stagnant; the unified group is much like an ecosystem—always in flux, yet somehow perfectly contained.
Conformity is not unity. A list of rules scrolling to the end of the Earth, covering every last topic imaginable, is not necessary. Conformity disrupts unity. And unity is necessary. Unity is good. It is with unity that the world will see us Christians and know that God is real, Jesus is His Son, and that God loves us even as He loved His own son. It is with unity that all of our differences can come together to be one.
Let’s unify.
Although I obviously cannot agree with everything that you wrote there are some things i will take with me and some things I will leave. I say this as a Metaphor for the church. For we were scattered, but one day will come into Unity under our Lord Jesus Christ, He is all that matters.
One thing I must say that did stick out specifically is how you say some things that what Paul writes annoys you and whether it was blasphemy. There a lot of things in the Word that annoy me and that are very hard to accept and swallow for me as a mere mortal, There are times that I lose faith and question my beliefs. Does that make me a sinner no. CAUSE I AM A SINNER. Down to the deepest part of my soul, Thank God for Jesus
I appreciate your blog on conformity and unity. You make some excellent and thought-provoking points. I am still in the process of trying to separate the two ideas. My son is transexual and this has really pushed my thinking about unity. My approach has been to keep loving him and encouraging his gifts and talents.
Ron, thank you for your comment. I am happy to hear you have approached your transexual son with love and encouragement. He is lucky to have a parent like you, and I’m sure he has many things to offer the community, Christian or otherwise.
Though I don’t pretend to fully understand the Lord, I think that if you are acting in love, no matter the situation, your are on His side. If you don’t mind, I would like to pray that God continues to give you guidance, as well as protects your son as he faces an often unloving world.
I would welcome your prayers. “I want to believe that if I am acting in love, no matter the situation, that I am on his side.” I guess it takes some acts of faith
Some really great thoughts. I don’t come to all the same conclusions, but it sounds like we’ve asked a lot of the same questions.
The distinction between unity and conformity makes a lot of sense, although I would probably do some tweaking of the definitions if I were to employ them “Christianly” (bad word, I know).
For example, I do think there are plenty of areas in the Christian life that demand conformity. In other words, part of the definition of becoming a Christ-follower is willingness ti be shaped and conformed increasingly to his image through the power of the Spirit.
“Conformity” when it is used as you did through this article, to describe noncritical submission to a set of arbitrary regulations, is a bad thing. However, ‘conformity’ when understood Christologically in terms of discipleship can actually be a very positive thing. I realize that wasn’t the point of your post, but I think it’s a point worth making.
I would say the same thing about ‘unity.’ As a Christ-follower, unity is primarily about being united as we collectively submit (another bad word because it’s so often misused) to God’s Spirit in the work of Sanctification — no matter whawt you understand ‘sanctification’ to mean.
In short, I like your distinction, and I think it makes a lot of sense. But, as a Christ-follower myself, I think it’s helpful to define the terms theologically not just sociologically.
Also, I think you’re onto something in your discussion of the Pharisees. They were a group that derived their identity through things they did not do; consequently, they defined themselves negatively (that is, definition by subtracting things and behaviors that seemed in approrpriate). I think Evangelicals in America are guilty of the same exact thing.
How many times have you heard the phrase, “Christians don’t ____________”
On the other hand, Jesus repeatedly defined what his followers should be positively (by commanding them to do certain things). By adding certain beliefs and more importantly, practices to their lives, Christians live into the true definition of the word.
I really like what you said about groups defining themselves negatively, rather than positively as Jesus defined his followers. It’s as if one groups is built around tearing things down and another around building things up. It seems to me that that fits nicely into the overall spirit of this post.
And I agree with your definition tweaks. As you noticed, I was orienting my definition in a sociological sense, but there is a point where Christian “conformity” (still don’t like that word…) is healthy. It just seems difficult for many churches to resist turning healthy “conformity” into divisive conformity (oxymoron?), as I have used the term.
I wonder, Brittany, if you’re aware of the current conversations concerning Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy.
If you’re not familiar, it sounds like a conversation you would be interested in, as it hits some of the points in your post.
I was not familiar with the current conversation in such terms. Thanks for making me aware. This is, I think, at the crux of what I’m trying to comprehend.
[...] Evangelicalism, God, Jesus, Pharisees, us against them At lunch this afternoon, I read an interesting blogpost about the differences between conformity and unity — and where Christians can err when it [...]
Thanks for this post. It is much harder to find discussions regarding the problem of Christian conformity as opposed to unity of different (yet equally valid and legitimate) people.
I especially agree with this:
“Conformity breaks people apart. Because if one does not conform to a group that requires it, the non-conformist is bashed and banished. Look at any Christian sect, ask them why they split from their head Church, and their answer is almost always a list of conforming principles. The answer is mostly not directly related to a differing belief about the supremacy of God, the reality of Jesus, or the need to love God and our neighbor. Sometimes is it. More often, it’s about style of worship, dress, atmosphere, or any other personal preference that people confuse with the Law of God.”
Good post. Thank you. I was in a Christian group for part of my time at college but gave it up because I was so sick of everyone thinking exactly the same way about things that no one could ever really understand. It would be one thing for everyone to agree about obvious things such as not murdering people, but the stuff everyone was preaching was so convoluted that the only people who would believe it were the people who refused to consider thinking about these issues for themselves.
The discussions were often centered around how bad it was to be in a fraternity, drink, have sex or follow another religion. I actually heard at least two (probably a lot more) guest speakers who either said that Muslims were all terrorists or Mohammad and Joseph Smith were horribly arrogant for claiming something that Christianity didn’t teach. I can’t count how many people feel that homosexuality is a sin because of what the bible says. Everyone insisted that the bible was the ultimate truth about God but not one time did anyone give a rational reason why we would be so certain of this. I don’t mean to say the bible doesn’t have good messages but I have a hard time accepting that it is the ultimate infalliable word of God without anything to support it. It’s one thing to have faith, but another to base crucial life decisions on something that has almost nothing tangible to argue in its favor.
I wasn’t about to go through college without drinking or having sex. More importantly, I didn’t want to be forced to accept principles I thought were horribly wrong so I gave up and followed God on my own rather than conforming to a group.
Another thing that got to me was that I heard completely contradictory messages all the time. One minute they would say that the Bible was very clear and needed to ALWAYS be taken literally but other times they would say that there many times where it shouldn’t be. I felt as if rather than speak out when they didn’t agree with something in their hearts my Christian friends would find a way to justify what the Bible said even if it didn’t make much sense.
I don’t mean to bash Christianity either. I just agree with the post that Christians need to start thinking for themselves a little more. Even with the best intentions, conformity and refusal to take things into consideration for yourselves can be very dangerous. History has shown many situations where good men supported horrible things because they refused to question them.
It sounds like we had similar experiences with these groups, especially in college. We never need to shy away from pursuing the truth, I don’t think.