Some more thought provoking words from Philip Gulley*:
Given the zeal with which we ostracize those who are different, one might wonder if the drive for communal uniformity is less motivated by our passion for moral purity and more symptomatic of an obsession with control . . . while communal uniformity might help assimilate people into a fellowship, it too often reduces people to mindless imitators, ultimately robbing the community of the intellectual vitality and diversity it needs to grow and evolve. Churches primarily concerned with communal uniformity encourage spiritual inbreeding, where theological DNA is replicated over and over, fostering spiritual deformity. This might be the greatest danger of communal uniformity – it discourages, if not outright forbids, the progression of a healthy faith. It freezes the community in a given moment, insists it has reached the pinnacle of understanding, and thwarts any effort to move the group forward. Advocates of conformity customarily ignore or silence any voice that calls for change. (99-100)
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