Religious Institutionalism

We have good reason to hold religious institutions in suspicion, but no more or less than we do other cherished cultural institutions. While our culture is largely founded upon the idea of rugged individualism, the reality is that our institutions have, as an intrinsic purpose to their being, the goal of turning out a relatively uniform constituency. Governments are infamous for their inefficient bureaucracies and apathetic non competitive workforces, because government does not reward innovation nearly as well as it rewards uniformity and compliance. Public schools, which have the presumed goal of educating the youth of a society, actually produce relatively few truly bright students, because the environment and curriculum is too uniform to produce creativity, too programmed to produce self teaching learners, and just generally too much geared toward the lowest common denominator. Thus, our educational institutions produce a few remarkable students, and an exceedingly large number of unremarkable or even deficient students. Granted, the self motivated can sometimes glean an exceptional education, but it must also be presumed that this environment suppresses the real potential of others.

These institutions produce a public that is educationally sufficient, industrially uniform, and easily manipulated. This might explain why, as a nation, we are willing to believe that the government, with its lackluster management track record, is going to suddenly and magically possess the ability and knowledge to fix our ailing economy. We are not, generally speaking, taught to think for ourselves or to resolve our own problems.

But further, it illuminates a frightening reality about the institutional church. That too, I'm sad to say, has as a central goal the production of a uniform and marginally educated membership. Religious institutions, as a rule, do not produce members who routinely think for themselves about the faith, but rather individuals who are loyal to the institutions interpretations of Christian principles. Nor do these institutions teach their members to seek or expect a calling. That is, we have all sort of bought into the idea that a few people have a calling from God to do something of significance for the Kingdom of Christ, and that the rest of us have no higher calling than membership in the institution.

At its worst, institutionalism in all its expressions becomes a vehicle of indoctrination rather than hope. A few will emerge as leaders. A few will excel as students. A few will rise to prominence in the work force. And a few will follow the Spirit of God into new places. The remainder of the society will practice rigid compliance.

The frightening prospect in this, for the church, is that it suggests a subcultural ethic in which a few are called to walk in the Spirit, and the rest are called to membership, wherein they participate, by proxy, with the Spirit led among them. Too many Christians in the church today are entirely too content to let others live the life of a disciple for them, while they donate a bit of time and money and try, generally, to keep their noses clean. Too many more non-believers reject the faith entirely because its original import and vitality have been dimmed by institutional varnish.

Seems like we need a good old fashioned rebellion.