James Young wrote:
> When an individual is a member of a larger religious community, the
> community's order even though determined by the leaders will be endorsed
> by the faithful membership. When some one creates literature that may
> attack the foundations of said group, then one should not be surprised
> that the group (as a whole) may ostracize that individual. This is not
> a matter of wrong or right, but one of group dynamics and orthodoxy.
It may be normal group dynamics, but it's not Christlike. Aren't members
of Christ's church supposed to be rising above normal human behavior?
I'm also very uneasy with the flippant way writers are being
characterized as attacking the church. One person's exploration is
another person's attack, depending on whether you agree with the
writer's conclusions or not. I know I could write a whole lot of
exploratory and questioning things that many members of the church would
label attacking, yet that would be the farthest thing from my mind.
> The group ethos determines if the member's status is directly related to
> one's commitment to group belief, not the individual. Thus all the
> individual can do is submit, or if he is in disagreement, then honorably
> resign from the group. For the artist to blame the group and absolves
> himself of any supposed guilt or wrong doing, this seems disingenuous to me.
It seems disingenuous to me for the church which claims to be Christ's
church to not act Christlike.
I shudder to think how many people would leave the church if they have
to do so because they disagree with some things. Does this mean you
believe the church really should be populated by the cookie-cutter
members many outsiders believe we are?
--
D. Michael Martindale
dmichael@???
==========================================
WARNING!! The world may be about to end. Hell may
be on the verge of freezing over.
Rumor has it that the scandalous LDS novel "Brother
Brigham," written by D. Michael Martindale, may
actually be published. The rumormongers claim the
release date is sometime in November.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
