Thursday, April 26, 2007

To conform or...

not to conform...that is the question?

I was lucky to be a part of a blog meeting this morning at the KBC. It was a gathering of all the KBC sponsored bloggers and me being the I.T. who helps support them. But we had an intresting converstaion about "what is off limits" in the blogosphere. I have always had a blog and it has been fairly private to this point so for me alot of topics that had been on the table probably shouldn't have been in the public sector but I discussed them anyways. But it was pointed out to me that the context of the conversation is always the most important point in your post. I mean for me to talk about religion is like second nature because it is so important to me. I have always felt that questions about doctrine and theology should be discussed in the open forum. I do not believe in conformity in any sense of the word. I have always made my faith and my beliefs mine. If someone taught something I would always investigate the truth of the teaching and if it was I applied that teaching to my life. I do not view that as wrong. But it was pointed out to me through this discussion that I do have to conform to some extent. I conform in marriage. If I had my heel set in the ground my marriage would fail. A good leader has to be willing to hear all sides of a discussion. I am seeking to conform in Christ. So I am a conformist just not in the sense that our culture views it. So the question is why is doctrinal/theological/spiritual conformity seen as a must in our Christian walk? Lets face it....we don't always agree and if we did then I fear that is worse than us not.

1 comment:

Josh Neikirk said...

Well, as a person who is probably the biggest non-conformist there will ever be, I understand where you're coming from. You know my history of stirring up disagreements on the internet, and the one thing I've learned is to never post something without giving your full background of where you're coming from when you are formulating your thoughts.

But I think even more than a full background, or conforming to precedents, is the use of respect on the internet. As apart of the internet community, we are not sitting down to an after-dinner discussion, in which afterwards we are still friends. The internet takes away faces and voices of the people who are on it, and we must always keep in mind that behind every opinion and every post, there is a person.

I think that if we can remember this very fact, then there should not be an issue of "to conform or not to conform." People will of course have different opinions, but it should not be the opinions that matter, but the person. Too often we forget this, and people end up hurt, and might feel that the tradition that we are advocating is an elitism that they should not have any part of. And of course this is the exact opposite of what Christianity is all about.