Identity and Group Loyalty

We all have multiple identities. In complex culture, most people have ties to a number of social groups in addition to personal roles: job, religion, friendships, neighborhoods, and volunteering. Each person is in control of how significant each identity is in his or her life. The deep level identity is where the foundation of a person’s identity resides. It is at that level of one’s identity that evaluates, informs, and controls decision-making and behavior.

Paul Hiebert offered the following illustration of how shuffling these identities might work. He pictures three levels. However, in complex culture there are often many more than three. We all acquire an identity from each group we belong to. A person may be a Democrat, a Methodist, a Bostonian, Swiss, a Red Sox fan, a Rotarian, a teacher, a husband, a wife, a parent, etc.). And each is ordered according to that person’s priorities. However, only one can be the deep level identity, the foundational element of that person’s identity. That identity determines the order and the importance of the others. These identities are constantly competing for that place, and in complex culture, it can happen that the priorities become skewed

The classic example of this is the person whose profession has become the foundation. The family and church become less of a priority. One telltale sign is broken promises, to wife, husband, and children.

For most people who have recently moved, some deep level identities are often left behind (family, church, etc.). They will soon seek similar new relationships, especially if they arrive by themselves. A new deep level identity will quickly be formed.

Shifting identities is not just an exercise in easy preference, like the kind of ice cream one enjoys. Deep-level identities have deep meaning and carry consequences for the person making the choices.

Each identity will come into play in the appropriate context. In certain situations, a person’s identities may come into conflict with each other, like becoming a first-time parent.

Let’s look at a few examples of how this works. For Person A, her faith is the most important thing in her life. But she is also a history professor and belongs to the Rotary Club. If the university or a Rotary Club event were to conflict with a church event, she will always do her best to arrange her schedule to make attendance at the church event possible. Her Christian values inform and even override clashing value judgments she needs to make. She would, for example, have uncompromising commitment to truth, goodness, forgiveness, peacemaking, mercy, etc.

For Person B, the most important part of his identity is his membership in the Democratic Party. He takes great interest in whatever is happening in the party at the local, state, and national level. It makes no difference if it is on Sunday, or Kiwanis has scheduled something, person B will always choose the Democratic Party meetings. All of his value decisions will conform to party values, even when they might conflict with his values as a Christian. For example, a Roman Catholic who is a Democrat might embrace the use of birth control over his church’s stand against it.

Shifting        

Such shifting can be observed when someone accepts Christ. At that point, one’s pre-Christian identity will still be part of that person’s life. However, as that person turns his or her life and loyalty over to Christ and joins the Church, he or she has added a new identity. This new identity may, at first, not conform completely to the values of the Church or the Christian faith. Often the new convert does not yet have a good grasp of biblical knowledge and a Christian value system.

It takes time for the new identity to work its way through the identities of the old life. The new Christian needs a church community to form values and loyalties. It takes instruction in the Scriptures, mentoring, accountability, and time to form a deep-level identity. It takes time for a new convert to make Christianity his or her foundational identification.

In West Berlin, a couple that had just accepted Christ began attending our church. I noticed that they attended worship every other Sunday and asked them why. “Oh, we love dancing competitively, and our club meets every other Sunday morning.” “Well,” I replied, “just make sure you pray, read the Bible together every day, and fall in love with Jesus.” A few months later, I noticed they were in worship two Sundays in a row. I approached them, “I thought you two were supposed to be dancing today.” “Oh, pastor, we have decided we need to be here on Sunday morning.” Their new identification with Christ had quite naturally, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, taken priority over their prior deeper-level identities.

We must remember the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit to do His job. When we give well-meaning advice to new Christians about what their deep-level identity should be we run the risk of taking over His responsibility. We want new Christians to recognize His voice when He speaks, not our voices. Christian maturation is evident when one’s Christian identity moves toward becoming deep-level.

What are some additional indications of deep-level identity?

How do you instill deep-core identities in your children?

At what point do we act on our deep-core identity in every-day situations?

What are the deep-level identities of Christians in America?

1967-1972 -- The Watershed Years

What were some of the contributing factors to how our society has evolved to where it is today? I am not a historian, but it is interesting to me how current events and new ideologies seem to emerge and converge with more traditional ideologies. They seem to intensify each other, and in so doing create societal change.

After World War II, fundamental changes began to take place within the country. An eighteen-year long Baby Boom produced a generation of post-war children unequaled in size.[1] They were the largest single population group in the United States. Their sheer size created ever newer markets. Entrepreneurs catered to their every whim. The prosperity of the post-war years and the advent of short-term credit added to the purchasing-power of this cohort. In the mid- to late sixties, the Baby Boomers arrived on university campuses with idealism and a taste for personal freedom.

At the same time, an ideological and philosophical shift was moving on most university campuses. Like the Modern Era ushered in by the Free Thinkers in 18^th century Europe, the decade of the 1960s was signaling the emergence of Postmodern thought into the generation now firmly in charge of every aspect of our society.

Their well-known rejection of the values and ideals that had catered to their every desire came as a surprise to their elders. They embraced the ideals of free expression which was a departure from the limits of the world of their parents.

As if in conspiracy, national events occurred to reinforce their rejection of modern values. One could posit that these events occurring between 1967-1972, helped to define an ideological part of complex culture:

1.         The Cold War and the threat of total destruction.

2.         Woodstock

3.         The sexual revolution – “free love” (Playboy)

4.         Free speech at Berkeley

5.         Drug culture

6.         The Civil Rights movement.

7.         Vietnam protest movement – Kent State.

8.         The 1968 Democratic convention.

9.         The Feminist and Gay Rights Movements.

10.     The "God is Dead" movement

11.     Situational ethics

12.     The landing on the moon

13.     The Assassinations of

•        Malcolm X (1965)

•        John F. Kennedy

•        Martin Luther King, Jr.

•        Bobby Kennedy

14.     Watergate

15.     The banning of prayer in public schools

16.     Roe vs. Wade (early in 1973).        

The accumulation of such massive societal crises only reinforced their pledge to question their elder’s commitment to modernity.[2] Far Eastern religions[3] were explored. They experimented with experience-altering and hard drugs in an effort to find meaning beyond reason. Their movement away from organized religion, and a fundamental distrust of any institutions, were further hallmarks of this generation. While embracing the expressive freedom of rationalism, they also aspired to find expression beyond rationalism's strict adherence to human reason alone.

As the Boomers have aged and moved into positions of leadership, their quest has been translated into policy. Although the values of the generations following them will have their own impact, the values of the Boomers[4] will be definitive for the next decades.

Many Christians feel as though expressive/individualism’s new vigor is at the expense of Christianity and the Church. But beyond that, it seems as though every world event is conspiring to strengthen the hand of expressive individualism (Bellah, 1985). This concern helps us better to understand why the biblical/religious traditions tend either to fight or to flee complex culture.

Are there ways these sea changes in society can be used to the Church’s advantage?

Will the Church need to do some soul-searching and shift its strategy to meet this challenge? If so, what will it entail?

To what extent might the Millennials (the Boomer’s children), for whom life without computers and the internet is a foreign concept, influence an additional shift in our culture?

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[1] Cultures, under normal circumstances, are generally distinguished from other cultures external to themselves.  Internal heterogeneity occurs, when a culture undergoes such internal changes that internal differentiation is observable.

[2] These movements developed within a significant literary context.  A short list of such works might include Rachael Carson's Silent Spring (1962), Aldus Huxley's Brave New World (1932), George Orwell's 1984 (1949), and B. F. Skinner's Walden Two (1948).  Additional authors, including the existentialism of Jean Paul Sartre, provided a philosophical foundation for today's urban society.

[3] Chiefly Hinduism and Buddhism were consulted.

[4] The Boomers are now between the ages of 45 and 63, and make up approximately one-third of the U. S. population.

The Salt of the Earth

Matthew 5:13-15

It is a high compliment to say, “He or she is the salt of the earth!” However, there are only a few things more negative than, “He or she isn’t worth his or her salt!”

Right after Jesus finished with the Beatitudes, He declared those words to His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth.” What was He telling them?

The Beatitudes speak of: poverty of spirit; endurance of sorrow; yieldedness to God’s direction; a hunger and thirst for righteousness; mercy; purity of heart; peacemaking; and enduring persecution in the service of righteousness. Then Jesus said, “You are salt.” To have Jesus talking about salt here doesn’t seem to fit. What did Jesus mean? What did his audience understand Him to say?

William Barclay helps us by suggesting that in the time of Jesus, salt was connected in people’s minds with three special qualities.

Salt Was Connected with Purity.

It was a glistening white necessity of life. It was one of the earliest offerings to the gods, because it came from the purest of all things the sun and the sea.

In the Ancient World Salt Was the Most Common Preservative.

A preservative is the second quality Jesus was thinking of when He uttered those words. In those days, used salt was used to preserve perishable food, meat, and fish in particular.

The Most Common Quality of Salt Is its Ability to Flavor Food.

Food without salt is tasteless, boring, even sickening. Christ is to life, what salt is to food. He lends the flavor of joy to life. We need to rediscover the radiance of the Christian faith. Wherever we are, we must be dispensers of joy.

However, I believe there is a fourth, and an even more significant connection to what Jesus was trying to say.

Salt was Connected with God’s Covenant — “A Covenant of Salt.”

Many of the cultures in the Old Testament had the custom of sealing a covenant between two people, by sharing bread and salt. By so doing, they were binding themselves to one another in covenant.

This very covenantal idea is found in the Torah. We read in Num. 18:19, “Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the LORD… is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD for both you and your offspring.”

In the Cereal Offering – they were to add salt – Lev 2:13, “add salt to all your offerings.” Salt was to be a constant reminder to them of God’s Covenant.

Later in the Old Testament, after the death of Rehoboam, the King of the Southern kingdom, Jeroboam, king of the Northern kingdom, saw an opportunity to invade the South. He marched with 800,000 men against the army of King Abijah half that size.

In his defense, Abijah called out to Jeroboam in II Chron. 13:5, “Don’t you know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt? The “covenant of salt,” was Abijah’s legitimacy to the throne of David. Jeroboam’s army suffered 500,000 casualties, and was defeated.

Jesus also spoke of salt in a covenantal way in Mark 9:50, “…have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” By having salt in ourselves, we seal our mutual loyalty to each other, and to the covenantal relationship we have entered into with God.

“You are the salt of the earth,” is a metaphor of God’s New Covenant. We are to infiltrate our society, and remind people of God’s goodness by living out our purity, preserving power, and our joy.

CONCLUSION

Being salt includes both being and doing. However, for salt to have any impact at all, it has to come into contact with the target.

Jesus said, Luke 9:24, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” When salt is doing its job it melts; in a sense it loses its life. But in that process, it finds its true purpose. Being salt costs something. But we have the promise of Jesus Himself – if we give up ourselves in His service, we will find our true purpose. God is faithful.

Do not stay in the salt shaker. Allow God to shake you out onto our society, where you can become Christ for them. People will not want to have anything to do with Jesus, until they see Him in us. Salt also makes people thirsty. Soon some will be asking, “Please give me the living water only Jesus can give.”

How is your church being salt in our society?

How are you being the salt of the earth?