Is just as powerful as any other peer pressure. Remaining a part of the in-crowd can be fragile, especially if those in power have drawn a hard line in the sand on an issue.
Which is why I have some compassion for the parents of the blind man who could now see. They’re willing to admit knowledge of just enough to both acknowledge their son, but also to stay in the good graces of the synagogue leaders.
“We know he is our son.”
“We know he was born blind.”
“But how he can see, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know.”
Yes. Yes. Shoulder shrug.
The thing is, they knew. They were simply afraid to admit that Jesus was responsible. Why? Because they still wanted to go to church.
As a church leader, I am aware that a lot of people probably still want to attend church, they still value the practices and the people, but they are afraid of their own honesty. So they fake it.
Yes. Yes. Shoulder shrug.
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges I see for the church is in how to create a culture of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual honesty when there is so much religious peer pressure. Whether intentionally baked-in or not, it’s there in every church in one way or another.
I don’t have any silver-bullet solution, but I suspect it begins, first, with taking the risk of being honest myself. And then, second, not drawing any more lines in the sand than Jesus asks for, even possibly erasing lines that others assume to be there.
