Organized Religion

[sport_122]

It doesn't have to be centralized leadership at all. Let me illustrate. If you hang out with rich people and do what rich people do, it is likely that you'll become rich. If you hang out with poor people and do what poor people do, it is likely you'll be poor. If you hang out with friends who enjoys basketball and car enthusiasm, it is likely that you'll enjoy basketball and car enthusiasm. There are no clear leaders (but yourself) but you adopt the mentality, thinking, trends and behaviors as your peers. That is the very definition of herd mentality.

skipped for space

If you think about, it is no different from anything else. Life, at its core, is what we know and do everyday...Your religion, your belief (in whatever it is) is as much a part of life as anything else you involve yourself in.

So no, the stakes are the same. Life IS on the line, no matter how you decide to live it.

The first part makes me ask this...

Aren't you hanging out with them because you are like them already? Every society that I can think of has its social classes except the church. The church(thinking of the community not the buildings) is diverse. It serves people from all walks of life and it brings them together on the same platform, the heart. It is supposed to address the needs of the community and the individual. This happens with personal church members, and when churches go into mission fields.

When we look outside the church, we see the opposite. The poor are not socially adapted to the rich. Try being a poor man in some of the neighborhoods in Alpharetta. Just seeing you on the street would provoke a phone call to the PoPo. Try being a noticeably rich man in the ghetto. Heads will turn and you may lose a few things in the process.

but my point is that people don't hang out with people and then become like those people, they are seeking those types of people because thats who they already are. However, in the church we mostly see this gap closed. Sadly, the american culture has influenced us enough that the same gap goes right back in place as soon as the doors of the worship house open.

So if anything I see this type of relationship as more conducive to a happy life.

[ahabion]

but my point is that people don't hang out with people and then become like those people, they are seeking those types of people because thats who they already are. However, in the church we mostly see this gap closed. Sadly, the american culture has influenced us enough that the same gap goes right back in place as soon as the doors of the worship house open.

So if anything I see this type of relationship as more conducive to a happy life.

Could be possible that you are who your peers already are but what if you're still trying to find who you are? People getting mixed in with the "wrong crowd" or girls dating a guy that is really a polar opposite. Sober friends who socialize with drunks. A rich man can hang out in the ghetto so long as he plays the part. A poor man pretending to be rich (happens all the time: Con men). (was thinking about Disney's Aladdin, princess sneaking off to be a commoner)

Yes, it is in the church that we see the gap close but though from different walks of life, they share the common ground: church. So though many may be of a different feather (birds) they still fly south. (though we don't notice it here as much as you would in the North )