I've driven past this sign at least 4 or 5 times in the past few days, and it bugs me. Now I *think* (and please feel free to correct me if I'm reading the intention wrong) that this message implies the security of having a church home. "Worship with us, and your religion will be a comfort and protection to you." Or something like that.What *I* get from this is that it is a VERY dangerous thing to think, act, BE different. "If you aren't like everyone else, you're in for some serious trouble."
We encourage our children to be who they are, we reassure them that we love them as they are, and promote independent thought, resistence to peer pressure. We tell them it's important to question the herd mentality, and to not do what everyone else is doing, just because everybody else is. "Would you jump off a mountain just because Joe Banana did?" According to Victory Baptist Church, God's Little Instruction Book, and the 1180 Google hits I got when I searched that little nugget, it's a better bet to jump with the group than to take your chances alone on the cliff.
I don't think so.
4 comments:
United we stand, divided we fall. Who said that?
The best sign I've seen posted in front of a church was: "Not to decide is to decide." It's been my motto ever since I saw it in Berkeley in the early 1960s.
Christine in the California Delta
I think "united we stand" is a little different, though maybe not. To me, "unite.." implies the power of teamwork, of *coming* together to overcome obstacles. The banana message, on the other hand, seems to play on the fear of swimming against the current.
I'm not sure I understand the "Not to decide" sign, either. Maybe I'll decide not to understand it. Or I won't. Either way... ;o)
I agree with you. Just look at all of those people in Jonestown who drank the kool-aid. (They were "united" in one way, but was it a good way? I think not & none of them are arounf to refute me.)
... and this is exactly why I have a huge problem with the extreme fundamental right wing and have pretty much stopped being a part of the church. I still church hop from one church to another, hoping that one of these days I will meet a group of free thinking Christians who find room to love God, and people who are different from them, all at the same time. So far, it's been a fruitless journey.
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