Sunstone Session 1: Obedience Culture

This session was more about religion (and politics) and not so much about the LDS church, specifically. Glenn Cornett discussed “obedience culture” – a culture that values “conformity over competence, unflinching faith over critical thinking, and institutional loyalty over human dignity” (quoted from his paper’s abstract). He discussed the apathy Americans seem to be moving toward when it comes to independent thought and analysis as well as holding authoritative leader figures accountable through questions.

Cornett presented two terms: unqualified and anti-qualified. To defend a henhouse from a coyote, a scarecrow is unqualified. The coyote won’t be afraid of the scarecrow, so the scarecrow is useless or unqualified. A fox, on the other hand, is anti-qualified. If you place a fox in a henhouse to protect the hens from coyotes, the fox will attack the hens instead, the exact opposite of what it was meant to do.

In J. Bonner Ritchie’s response to Cornett’s paper, Ritchie emphasized churches that promote an atmosphere of “obedience culture” typically have a body of governing leaders that act as the central control. This in and of itself is not the problem. The problem is that when members do not use critical thinking regarding the mandates or decisions made by the centrally controlling body, the process of making democratic decisions – or choosing based on consensus – is hindered. Ritchie pointed out that the process of turning absolute control - without the checks and balances of individual thought and analysis - over to an organization or specific leader prevents the natural process of making individual decisions, accepting the consequences of those decisions, and learning from their outcome. As people turn over control, they stop learning how to make good decisions and stop accepting the consequences that create their own surroundings and society.

Cornett suggested that the “structural and functional characteristics of obedience culture churches render them anti-qualified as principal public policy influencers.” I think that what he means by this is that as world citizens turn the decision of their own individual political opinions and decisions over to central bodies of leadership, the consensus/democratic model of governing and existing is encumbered to the point that it is not just useless, but actually doing the opposite of what it should be. “Obedience culture” is putting the control of important issues that effect our daily lives in the hands of a few biased controllers that may or may not represent the masses and may or may not have moral, ethical intentions/motivations.

Jimmy Carter published a book called “Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis” from which Cornett quoted the following: “There has been, indeed, a disturbing trend toward fundamentalism in recent years, among political leaders and within major religious groups both abroad and in our country, and they have become increasingly intertwined.” Cornett argued that this fundamentalism, which is unfortunately propagated too often by organized religious groups, tends to “alienate the honest in heart whom also happen to be diligent in mind” and that religious groups which foster obedience cultures “work against the very human potential they are meant to defend.”

I left the session with a renewed acknowledgement of the importance of independent thought and decision making. Cornett reminded us how important it is to take responsibility for our own circumstances and surroundings and that we can not excuse immoral and unethical happenings simply because we aren’t the individuals that chose for them to happen. By sitting around and not taking action against such happenings, we are actually participating in them and must share responsibility for the consequences.

A couple of years out of school myself, and working as an accountant in the post-Enron business environment, it is obvious that this is true in the business world. As a 20-something young adult that is part of a fairly apathetic generation toward politics (evidenced in our patterns of not voting or knowing anything about our government), it is obvious that this is true as a nation. Taking it a step further, I believe Cornett is calling Christians to pro-actively practice taking responsibility for the world around them and not give in to the seemingly-easy path of blind obedience and turning one’s thoughts over to another for the sake of complying with a culture of obedience.