Christianity and the 5th Disc. LO8815

orgpsych@csra.net
Thu, 01 Aug 1996 16:17:09 -0500

Replying to LO8760 --

I have gotten into a number of discussions with devout Christians lately,
especially a member of the Christian Coalition. We were generally talking
about tolerance toward other people and consideration of alternative
viewpoints regarding a variety of topics.

While the specific content of these conversations is not particularly
relevant to this newsgroup, one aspect is, I feel, particularly relevant.
That aspect is an uncompromising position that nothing other than their
particular dogma is correct. When suggesting that, perhaps, alternate
interpretations are possible which would change a publicly stated
position, the response was generally that the problem with the current
interpretation was that I was blind to the truth. This, of course, is
seriously summarized and condensed from these conversations.

I am heartened to hear that various ones are using the principles of 5th
Discipline in their spiritual work. I have found no contradiction between
the two sets of ideas. In fact, I find that Senge's, et al, ideas are
instrumental in explaining why we as people do and think many of the
things we do. As such, they are valuable tools in the pursuit of
spirituality.

As a social psychologist, I can see the dynamics at work which bring a
person or group to regard all other possible interpretations of a fairly
non-specific set of principles are in error. This doesn't leave me with a
"warm and fuzzy" though. The very "set in stone" aspect of such a
position is what has caused, and continues to cause, much of the pain in
the world. The aim of Senge's principles is to get us past this condition
and allow us to seek higher levels of understanding and enlightenment on
virtually any issue. This would seem, to me, to be of great interest to
anyone interested in understanding the world around us, to include the
spiritual world.

-- 

Clyde Howell orgpsych@csra.net

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>