My Problem With Groups
Just as Christianity is split on Truth into their separate denominations, Social Movements / Groups have adopted the same strategies in being split on what they think is Truth.
With the continuous rise of social movements/groups; we need to discuss the way we as a society are discoursing with one another. Currently, some policies are being pushed as THE only solution to solve a problem and to hell with everything else. This is dangerous rhetoric but before I get into those issues I want us to take a step back and discuss Truth for a moment. As I’ve written in previous posts, everything I write comes from a faith-based direction, so when discussing Truth I’d like to use that religious direction to begin my argument.
When I think of Truth I think of religion, I think of God, that’s our source of Truth. My point in saying this is that anything not handed down by God means it comes from a human which inherently is a flawed being. When the original church split through numerous schisms, some of that splitting up of the church was because of a disagreement on Truth… ultimate Truth… Dogmatic Tradition. It’s understandable to stand your ground as a church when Truth is being challenged by another group because a change of Truth is a change in what is God. However is there a danger in carrying over this principle of standing your ground in societal issues?
I’ve avoided attaching myself to any group or movement because I’d rather think objectively every policy individually than have to deal with the distractions of a group. The current perception is if you’re part of a group that means you automagically agree with everything the group stands for. No man-made group is Truth therefore we should think for ourselves the ideas on the table rather than just blindly accept it just because the people at the top of the group say it’s a good idea. This whole concept of individual thought will be lost by this sort of groupthink.
With all that said, groups are still important to lobby for certain issues/policies. But there’s a big difference between “I believe our path will be more optimized to tackle the problem” and “This is the only solution everything else is wrong.” That’s not a group anymore, that’s a group turned into religion or cult protecting a “Truth”. Which again doesn’t exist, because we’re humans…. all these things are going to be flawed, so whichever objectively moves the needle forward should be what we root for at the end of the day.
The easiest example of the issues I have with groups or dare I say identity politics, is Democrat & Republican. If I tell someone I’m Republican the assumption is I approve of everything the Republican party does (trickle-down economics, small government, anti-LGBTQ rights, Trump supporter, etc. etc.). If I say I’m Liberal, the assumption is I’m pro-choice, support welfare programs, support cancel culture, want to kill church values, etc. etc. To the point where I’m like what is the point of me even saying I’m swayed one way or the other anymore? The group becomes a major distraction. Instead, I’ll say the issues I’m prioritizing and explain why this candidate/policy will be more of my fitting than another.
Black Lives Matter is another example, the group for me is just another distraction to associate with (I’m not saying to support or not support). By just associating with BLM that means from the eyes of some that I’d hate police officers or want to defund them or believe in rioting. Mind you, these assumptions about the group don’t even necessarily have to be true about everyone who supports it, but this is sadly a fear-mongering tactic to make others afraid of the group. These perceptions are distractions for me. Instead, I’ll focus on individual policies and discuss their implications, and vote accordingly. From my perspective, it doesn’t matter whether someone is for or against BLM (the group not the cause its for). And I don’t hold it against anyone to show support for it because it doesn’t matter. What matters is the greater cause it’s fighting for (injustice against Black Americans). Are there things we can learn from and agree on to move the needle forward? Because instead of recognizing the problem that exists so we can find solutions we get caught up in distractions like whether kneeling during a national anthem is disrespectful or that All Lives Matter not Black Lives Matter. We become tribal. I beg of all of you when you have a group of individuals that are distraught it is up to the rest of us to step up and comfort and love them to change things for the better. Will it all be perfect tomorrow? No.
I don’t care about someone’s group to find ground that can move us forward. Focus on the problems at hand everyone, don’t fall for the distractions. Put aside the politics and personal opinions about the groups and focus on the problem at hand. Because the moment we realize that majority of times we’ll have more in common than differences the sooner we can enact solutions to move us forward. Otherwise, if we accuse, take down, fight one another the easier it is for evil to conquer because hate doesn’t fight with itself.
Let’s look at another example, healthcare. There are two paths we can take as a country, you have the public option with privatized healthcare still existing, then you have medicare for all without private (theoretically). Both are abiding by the premise that people should have access to healthcare. For the most part, nobody is arguing otherwise. So even though the public option was the way we went with instead of medicare for all, that’s still a victory nonetheless.
So I’m trying to argue the same train of thought for many other instances. Don’t tribalize yourself away from the others because they don’t want to do it the way you want it. They are most likely trying to achieve the same end goal as you but in a different approach. So make your case for the path you see best, let the people choose. Be together for whatever policy we end up with and continue to find a way to move forward. And this again all ties to the fact that human lead ideas are flawed because they will harm someone in some way. So that’s why we must be as objective as possible… seek perfection, seek the truth.
But fear not, because each generation we become smarter and better ourselves each time. Having patience and perseverance then over time we’ll conquer the problems we still see today to only battle the problems of tomorrow.
All of my commentary up until this point has been about the dangers of standing your ground on inherently fallible ideas, so when should we stand our ground? When values are being challenged, freedom of expression, fair elections, equality, etc. The abstract values that we as a country were built off of should be the very things we protect wholeheartedly.
Now I’ve been rambling on for a while but I wanna bring the premise of this post and connect it to Church service. I’ve been talking about how standing your ground on policies as if they’re “Truth” can be dangerous toward positive reinforcement to our systems, now let’s bring the lesson to the Church. In Church service, we can often get misconstrued about our knowledge when we’re behind the walls of the House of the Lord. Servants in some instances take advantage of the respect of the Church and carry it over to their leadership position. What do I mean? When the leaders of our Church (from the Pope to your Sunday school servant) make a decision it is seen by some in the congregation as a decision from God Himself. We need to understand that while the leadership of the Church is being guided by the Holy Spirit in their duties does not mean they are infallible by what they are enacting as a policy for the local parish/diocese or the Church itself. However, we the Church are doing our best to enact objectivity and Truth in everything we do, we won’t always get there but it’s what we are pursuing. Just like in our national politics, our policies (non-Traditional) as a church can be flawed because they are enacted by the fallible beings themselves. Understanding this will help move away from the pride in our Church so we can have productive conversations on making the Church better.
The points I want to leave with are such —
- Whether it be through your group or not, be aware of the complexity of humans and understand that your way of approaching problems isn’t the only or perfect way. Humans are flawed, understanding this allows for better discourse to reiterate ourselves to be better at every iteration.
- Recognize that just because someone isn’t in your “group” doesn’t necessarily mean they’re against you as a person or is inherently a bad person. We’re going to disagree on a lot of ideas because of how complex we are as humans but understanding we’ll have more in common than differences allows us to communicate solutions to the problems we see. Don’t name call or antagonize those that disagree with you, it just means more work is to be done to bring us together on the problem at hand. But if we divide amongst one another similarly to how the Church did centuries ago it allows evil to find its way in. Remember everyone is going to look after their self-interests, recognize this to find commonality but remain loving and empathetic so we can move forward.
- Don’t create distractions just to detract away from a mission, it’s bad faith. Learn from the hurts of those that are and aren’t expressing it without instantly assuming malice intention. Be empathetic, it’s what makes us human.
- Fight for values, not ideas
I want to leave this post with other resources that carries some of the messages I’m trying to push here
Cancel Culture, Part 2: A Case Study
In this episode on The Daily by the New York Times, a case study on how one tweet from someone with a “progressive identity” managed to get misconstrued all because of the identity of the individual who tweeted it. Highly reccomend the listen without me spoiling anymore.
Lastly I’ll leave with two quotes…
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. — Henry Ford
Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability. — Patrick Lencioni
Peace ✌️
