According
to Wikipedia, “The word orthodoxy
is mainly associated with the Greek Orthodox Church…. Since this theological
aspect was established the church moved on to resolve the right way to worship
God or Orthodoxy.”
As I
read on about the “right way to worship God” I cannot help but see the
parallels in how so many devote capitalists attach themselves to “the perfect
way” to create wealth, to engage in commerce, to generate profits and dominate
markets. And it isn’t just religion and economics. This adherence to the “one
right way” pops up in all human systems.
The
fundamentalist approach to anything - be it religion, business, law, medicine, politics,
education or any other discipline – is a function of the mind seeking a structure
it can comprehend. This provides security for those who identify with their
beliefs. The mind likes certainty and predictability. The mind has difficulty
with things experiential – things that can be “messy” and unpredictable. So,
the right way is sought and, once found, strictly adhered to with great fervor.
In
religion it is the right way to worship, the right “sacred text” to believe
literally, the right clergy to obediently follow. In medicine, it could be
loyalty to tradition which prevents new learning. In education it could be the
conventional factory-style method of training our young in the Three Rs. In
business it shows up as the dominance of the financial bottom line.
When
this orthodoxy is prevalent, those who challenge this perfect way are seen as
heretics, such as advocates of the Triple Bottom Line in business, holistic
healthcare, alternative schooling and restorative justice. While religion gave
rise to the term, we see orthodoxy has found its way into all human endeavors,
helping to make our institutions stodgy and arthritic, resistant and slow to
change. Heterodoxy or “other teaching” which opposes
orthodoxy met with plenty of resistance over the centuries in the world of
religion. With the modern pandemic of this black and white way of thinking into
all areas of our lives, we are seeing mass polarization, schisms and divides
between neighbors, brothers and sisters, and friends similar to what was seen
in the Inquisition, Crusades and Jihad.
For the sake of future generations, let us call a halt to this capitulation so our sense of spirituality, justice, education and health is allowed to remain experiential and not be concretized for the convenience of the egoic mind. Let us resist the temptation to reduce everything to what can be contained within the limited capacity of the mind and allow for these powerful experiences to have full rein within our hearts and souls.
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