Principles or Institutions?

We humans are “orga­ni­za­tional animals” — but so are oth­ers. Ants, skunks, bees, birds, fish, and just about every other liv­ing organ­ism orga­nizes to sur­vive (“Birds of a feather flock together…”). What we humans do that ani­mals do not do is wor­ship our orga­ni­za­tions. It is dif­fi­cult for us to remem­ber that insti­tu­tions exist for us — not us for them. They are mere tools, cre­ated by us, to fur­ther some prin­ci­ple of life.

The prin­ci­ples behind the con­cept of gov­ern­ment have to do with the dig­nity and free­dom of the indi­vid­ual plus his or her pro­tec­tion. When a gov­ern­ment becomes the oppres­sor instead of the lib­er­a­tor, it has lost its way. When it has blind adher­ents to its actions, it becomes an idol. The same is true for the church, for any com­pany, or for any other social or polit­i­cal organization.

We humans have a way of let­ting things we cre­ate become our mas­ters. How often has a non-denominational move­ment become a denom­i­na­tion? How quickly sys­tems cre­ate “sys­tems idiots” (peo­ple that are prod­ucts of a sys­tem and do not know how to func­tion except in that sys­tem)! Con­di­tion­ing is easy. We bow to our tools instead of using them.

I believe in love and the God that embod­ies it. I believe in peo­ple as made in the image of that eter­nal principle/being. Every­thing else is just a tool for the wor­ship of the first and the enhance­ment of the sec­ond — not ends in them­selves. When a church becomes more polit­i­cally than the­o­log­i­cally defined, it needs to ask itself some painful ques­tions. When gov­ern­ments reward evil and pun­ish good, they too need to be brought into question.

Insti­tu­tions are like babies. Once you have one, you have some­thing that pretty much has you too. Insti­tu­tions have egos. They grow by fif­teen per­cent per year and have their own demands. Despite our efforts to make them in our own image, we too often end up being shaped into theirs. Blind loy­alty is idol­a­trous. For­get­ting the prin­ci­ples behind an orga­ni­za­tion makes one a mere cog in a face­less machine.

We need our tools, but not for their own sake. The ends do not jus­tify the cru­el­ties of the means. In the final day, we will be mea­sured not by our mem­ber­ships but by our brave loy­al­ties to and expres­sions of uncon­di­tional Love.