While serving in the Army I was fortunate enough to spend 15 months at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey California, learning Russian. While there I had the opportunity, the only time in my short military career, to be stationed with members of the other three branches of the military.
You might find it surprising, but, each branch of the military has their own culture and during that time at DLI I was able to hear stories unique to the other branches.
Everyone in the Navy seemed especially proud of their Marine joke exploits.
If you are not aware, the Marines and the Navy are very closely aligned in combat operations and typically it is the job of the Navy to get Marines to where they need to go. So, Marines spend a lot of time on Navy ships giving ample opportunity to “mess with the Marines.”
One thing you need to know is that when it comes to conformity, the Marines lead the way. In Marine boot camp, new Marines are not allowed to refer to themselves in the first person; they refer to themselves as “this marine.” This is a way to remove the me and insert the we, and the Navy, as a whole, have delighted in exploiting this trait.
One of their favorite jokes is for a few sailors to randomly start a line at a random door on a ship. Simply start a line appearing to wait for something at a door. Inevitably, a group of Marines will happen upon this line and join in, not knowing if the line is meant to hand out checks for a million dollars or to volunteer for a suicide mission. After a short time, the sailors find reasons to leave the line, stating that they will come back later, leaving a group of Marines patiently waiting in a line for which they are unaware of its ultimate intent.
They just want to conform.
Psychology Today defines conformity as the tendency to align your attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those around you.
In a team building situation this can be a power tool. Conformity is what makes communities work. People agree to follow an agreed upon set of rules or laws and everything goes well until someone breaks from the pattern of law abiding citizen and commits a crime.
On a team, the group follows the direction of the coach with the singular goal of winning the competition which works well until someone decides not to follow the game plan.
Conformity can be good, but you don’t want to end up being a Marine standing in a line to nowhere.
Conformity in the church is a delicate balance. We want to conform to the word of God, and hope that the church does too, but when the church starts to conform to secular society, especially when it comes to ideas that do not coincide with scripture, it’s time to break from the mold.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2”
We have been commanded to differentiate ourselves from the world. If that line becomes blurred, we need to flee.
When the world tells us that evolution, which contradicts creation, is truth, we need to flee. When the world tells us that the Bible is outdated when it comes to relationships, which contradicts the word of God, we need to flee. When the world tells us that there are many paths to God, which contradicts Jesus, we need to flee, but not in an ignorant way. When we act completely on faith, we play into the hands of secular society that already believes that we eschew intellectual rigor.
Remember in Romans 12:2 above, “we are to test and approve of God’s will,” not just take it on blind faith. Faith is good and necessary, but not in everything.
There are times where intellectual rigor is an absolute must. Many millennials have left the church in recent years and the biggest reason given is the lack of intellectual rigor. The world is willing to appear to give it, but we have not been willing to go the extra mile.
Maybe it is fear of what you might find out, if that is the case then maybe you don’t really believe. If you don’t really believe then you need to dig deep into God’s word and research how it is actually infallible to convince yourself. God knows you heart, and if it is full of doubt, God will know.
If you are going on faith alone, because you are worried that research could lead to a contradiction in the Bible, then you don’t have complete faith in God breathed.
Ravi Zacharias and Os Guinness have said, apologetics isn’t the gospel, but it clears the way so you can better see the cross. We need to clear the way even if it doesn’t conform to society or even social mores that have worked their way into the church.
Questions have gone unanswered, and as a result we have lost souls.
Don’t be a Marine in a line to nowhere.