Administrators debbym Posted December 16, 2012 Administrators Share Posted December 16, 2012 living in an SDA ghetto, i see SDA's do business with SDA's and they hang in cliques of families that have known families for generations. Going to grade school, high school, and college, and then getting jobs and staying in the same community they seem to be pretty tight and know each other it is really a family community. I have though higher education was a cult... he heee It seems you are never an insider in some of these circles, unless you have been to the schools and grew up together. The ex SDA's seem to also watch each other's back, and exclude you if you are a practicing SDA. There about 5k attending practicing SDA's and about 5k ex SDA's in this valley. i don't think about it much except reading this topic on this thread. I don't feel any desire or need to be in the inside of the elite group. I have felt the ire of not being acceptable in this group. They have no superior wisdom or mercy as a result of their social circumstances. we are all human and all struggle, we are all equally in need of grace. There are plenty of good souls in the SDA community who are open hearted, learning, and growing and available to relate and support others. It seems societies class system exists in the Church the same as in society in general. deb deb Quote deb Love awakens love. Let God be true and every man a liar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kountzer Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Most adventist know that just being sda won't get you into heaven. If they don't know they should. There are no 'adventist ghettos' near me. The closest, Keene Tx, is 250 miles away. In my everyday life the ratio of adventist to none adventist is like 1/1000, or maybe 1/10,000. Most people don't know what an adventist is. Most don't know what the sabbath is. If you try to explain they mock you or try to draw you into some weird argument. Is it exclusive to stay home on a friday night, because it is the sabbath, instead of going to a football game, or a night club? I think not. Quote I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. Frederick Douglass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators debbym Posted December 17, 2012 Administrators Share Posted December 17, 2012 Quote: Having said that I appreciate what value circumstances can be to your witness for Jesus. Faith needs to be exercised! In don't know if it's such a good thing when our faith is tried as a result of being among too many of our own people... I so agree, and there are so many members in this position, and it is seldom recognized or acknowledged. there is something powerful about social behavior in large groups that is not a spiritual advantage. My local church family is under 50 members and we all really recognize and value that. debjm Quote deb Love awakens love. Let God be true and every man a liar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators debbym Posted December 17, 2012 Administrators Share Posted December 17, 2012 It sounds like this is about that Jewish exclusiveness, that they feared contamination from contact with non Jews. And their laws really spelled it out clear. I do believe many groups take on this mentality, when they are not operating by the power of Divine love, human forms of control express themselves. I don't want to be motivated by fear of losing my value to God, in my decisions to be or not to be humanly available to others. In contrast i see God longing for me to connect with others because he wants to make his love known to them through me. Quote deb Love awakens love. Let God be true and every man a liar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators debbym Posted December 17, 2012 Administrators Share Posted December 17, 2012 you can break it to me, it's no problem, my experiences are not with the majority, there are to many members for me to really connect with them all or even most of them. thankfully the majority of my experiences are very positive, There is just enough of the other to know it is there, it is real, and i am not a rare person to have been impacted by it. It is common. they can be protective of their sheltered lives to the point of losing their ability to relate to and touch the genuinely struggling, and less blessed members of our community. i could do this too, and shut myself off from the rest of the world. this is not what i believe i should do. debjm Quote deb Love awakens love. Let God be true and every man a liar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rudywoofs (Pam) Posted December 17, 2012 Members Share Posted December 17, 2012 A herd mentality isn't just an *Adventist* or *Christian* phenomenon. One can find it in EVERY group, large or small .... despite what it's members may claim. It's what "clubs" are all about... Quote Pam      Meddle Not In the Affairs of Dragons; for You Are Crunchy and Taste Good with Ketchup. If we all sang the same note in the choir, there'd never be any harmony. Funny, isn't it, how we accept Grace for ourselves and demand justice for others? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cricket Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 I agree with rudywoofs. It does happen in every group. Every herd needs a Shepherd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators debbym Posted December 18, 2012 Administrators Share Posted December 18, 2012 yes rudywoofs and cricket! so my question is, does herd mentality create a social barrier toward those outside the herd? is it exclusive in and of itself? does it create outsiders involuntarily? Quote deb Love awakens love. Let God be true and every man a liar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rudywoofs (Pam) Posted December 18, 2012 Members Share Posted December 18, 2012 yes rudywoofs and cricket! so my question is, does herd mentality create a social barrier toward those outside the herd? Of course. Quote: is it exclusive in and of itself? Is *what* exclusive in and of itself??? Exclusiveness? Quote: does it [exclusiveness] create outsiders involuntarily? Both voluntarily and involuntarily... Quote Pam      Meddle Not In the Affairs of Dragons; for You Are Crunchy and Taste Good with Ketchup. If we all sang the same note in the choir, there'd never be any harmony. Funny, isn't it, how we accept Grace for ourselves and demand justice for others? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cricket Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 so my question is, does herd mentality create a social barrier toward those outside the herd? is it exclusive in and of itself? does it create outsiders involuntarily? A relationship between two (or more persons), by nature is exclusive--such that no others have shared that personal history. A door can be opened, and others can join from that moment on and have the history explained to them--but the experiential history belongs only to the original persons. So, is there a barrier, yes, but only insofar as much as the relationship calls for. Exclusive in and of itself? Again, by nature, yes, but if a door is opened, it's possible that outsiders could partake in the future of the relationship. There can't be an inside without an outside. But neither the inside nor the outside is inherently good or bad. They just "are". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators debbym Posted December 21, 2012 Administrators Share Posted December 21, 2012 i think the social tension one may experience coming into a group that has formed it's own herd mentality... may not really be exclusiveness, i think there are other words for that. i think this thread is about sda members feeling extra special and wonderful because they have joined a church group they have idealized. And so because they are a member they feel they have gained a special value. then they look at there fellow citizens outside the group and feel smug or superior, rather then feeling indebted to those who have less so they snub others rather then connect with them. this is the exclusivity i think he creator of the thread was describing. being snubbed by someone who is smug is really an experience you feel. feeling the tensions of stretching the walls of a group that is established, this is something i think is unavoidable and nothing anyone is doing. and i would not call this exclusivity. unless it is one of the morays of the group to hold exclusiveness as a standard behavior of the group. debjm Quote deb Love awakens love. Let God be true and every man a liar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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