Community and Conformity

As a Christian who believes in the importance (I was going to say necessity) of being part of the church -- being part of the pilgrim community, I need to be reminded that not all community is good. Group think is quite possible and it can and will conform us to the group's identity.

In his posts on "ordinary evil" Richard Beck, a psychology prof at Abilene Christian University and blogger at Experimental Theology, ponders this dark side to community.

He discerns three things about conformity:

1. We have a very, very strong need to conform.
2. Consequently, our moral resolve is highly contextual depending upon the group pressures surrounding us.
3. Thus, if the group gets going in a bad direction normally decent folk can get swept away in the conformity rip tide.

As a way of testing this idea, watch this video:






What do you think?

Comments

Jen! said…
Scary stuff, Bob. The home group I am invovled in is quite diverse, and although it causes problems at times, it is a priority for us to continue to draw people who believe differently. Perhaps that is a goal that the church could/should make?

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