Good post!

Beige – survival of self – express self
Purple – tribal survival – supress self
Red – express self to hell with others – express self
Blue – keep the rules for reward later – supress self
Orange – assert structure on the world – express self
Green – enjoy relationships – supress self
Yellow – ensure the world will continue – express self
Turquoise – be aware of the interrelationship of everything – suppress self

Each level encompases the thinking of the way before.

Much of religion is in the blue way of thinking. Orange ways of thinking emerged with the renaisance. The reformation was the blue adapting the rules to cope with the orange threat. Green thinking emerged at the turn of last century, yellow post war and turqiose over the last 40 years.

Postmodernism in the main is a green way of thinking. The reaction of church to post modernity can be largely seen as a blue reaction to green thinking.

So green, yellow, and turquiose folks (outside of the church) who are focussed on enjoyable relationships are going to appear “good” compared to the blue folks who need to be “right”.

One challenge is blues (especially church ones) perceive the shift to orange as evil and a backwards move because it goes against many of their rules.

At some point the tipping point comes and one has to choose either to stay blue or to grow and move on. A challenge is that that person then is criticised by the blues they are attempting to be in community with and unfortunately sometimes a seperation is needed. A shame really but most blues don’t get it, and much of the church community works at a blue level – as evidenced by the over focus on othodoxy and even the definition of heresay as being about the rules rather than behaviour!!!

Anyway, hope this help.

– DM

I’m struck by John’s description of Jesus (John 1:14) where he says that he was, “full of grace and truth”. To quote the subtitle of Volf’s book, “Free of Charge”, we live in a culture stripped of grace. I think this is true both inside and outside the church. In the church we are so preoccupied with being right that we have pushed grace to the side.

I think another issue is that as we become increasingly “individualised” and “professionalised” then we have developed the skills to relate to people in a work setting, but have become increasingly de-skilled in how to relate to people in family / social settings. The warning bell that should go off in our heads saying, “what you are about to do or say might hurt this person” is wraped with the cotton wool of the individualised self, thus we do not hear the warning and plow ahead causing all sorts of damage.

What’s needed is genuine transformation – what worries me is that I see so many people who say they follow Jesus but there is no transformation from selfishness to servant-hood.

It’s 2,000+ years ago and you are a Pharisee. You have a love for God, a passion to do His will and follow His commands. You believe with all your heart that He desires others to follow Him as well. You live your life to spread the law. You do it in a manner that some (many) see as arrogant and careless. Your attitude labels you as a heretic (under this definition).

Same time period, you are a Samarian. You aren’t as connected to God, in the ways the Pharisees would have you be. You may or may not even know what that means. You live your life in friendships and relationships. You are human and so you do good and you do bad. Neither are you a “perfect” person and the Pharisees and other Jewish people (as well as other faiths) label you as a heretic (under this definition).

Jump to the 1200’s, you are the son of a rich businessman in a little town of Assisi. For a time you love to drink and party and stroll the streets at all hours singing at the top of your lungs. To the church you are a heretic. You then have a life changing event and dedicate yourself to God deeper than any other, you want to serve Him alone and your father see’s your attitude and calls you a heretic (by this definition). You then visit the Pope and you see the riches of the church while you are a beggar to help others and you think, they are heretics (by this definition). And they you.

Modern day (today). Many denominations are full of attitude of love for God and wanting you to love Him the same way. By this definition, they are heretics. Many churches focus on wealth and prosperity and they too are heretics. A movement of revitalization comes along and people come to a point of refocusing on relationships, and the church sees them as heretics (by this definition).

Though we may all be able to poke holes in this story, or add more groups, the point being that someone will always look at our attitudes and find some reason to question them. Though we are just God’s children doing our best, to come closer to Him and share His love with our brothers and sisters.

So rather than calling attitudes heresy, maybe the lesson in this observation is that we should recognize these attitudes in ourselves and others, acknowledge that we ourselves (in whatever form, time, denomination, …) we exist are considered heresy to others and do our best to spread the love of God as He has revealed himself to us.

This in no way undermines Jason’s post or any comments. They are all great pieces of observation and conversation. Thanks for the phrase to focus on Jason, it does hit home!

I aslo wonder to what extent we are all heretics anyway, since none of us has the monopoly on the full story and therefore maybe are attitude should be one of generousity, grace, openess, conversation and teachability – since we all need each other rather than chronological, sociological, denominational, any-other-al snobbery?