An “institutional misfit” is what I am and what I will always be. I have yet to discover any impetus that would drive me to join any man-made group or organization. That is, I cannot give my heart and soul to any institution—even those institutions within which I was born: the Roman Catholic Church, the corporatized county, state and federal governments—or those I freely chose, e.g., the B.A.R., law firms, universities, the U.S. Army and its JAG Corps—even the American state national movement gives me pause—none of these human inventions designed to bring a communal spirit together for a stated, underlying purpose have an overwhelming claim on me.
What I do recognize belonging to is the family whose DNA I carry, the spirit of the land upon which I grew up, and the planetary sensibility of being a surface entity of Earth. I am devoted to God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and I identify with God’s moral injunctions, into which I ever-aspire to be subsumed. I follow as my model, my Savior/Redeemer, Jesus (Yeshua) Christ, God-made-flesh, as to His words and actions as they appear in Holy Scripture. Jesus was reared in the Judaic religious tradition and was well-acquainted with Holy Scripture. But He was not a joiner of any man-made institutions, and neither am I.
This anti-joiner stance does not mean that I am anti-social, that I do not care for the company of others. While I treasure my solitude I am also drawn to be with those I love, those whom I have befriended or with those to whom I feel drawn by natural inclination. I aspire to treat family, friends and strangers just as I wish to be treated. And yet to come together in a formal bond of an institutionally recognized social or fraternal group of any kind holds no interest for me. If this makes me a loner or a maverick or a rugged individualist, so be it; I accept such designations from others without feeling estranged in any way.
If I choose to abide with a certain group of folks, for example, at some church whose pastor I sense is a noble shepherd, I am honored to be included and to learn from what I am taught there, while offering as much support and sustenance as I can in return while I am there. Yet I do not necessarily wish to be a formal member of any institution. I do subscribe to the sacred truism in Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” This is beautiful and delightful.
Thus, I posit that as we consider the notion—which church(es) are horribly ruinous here in the world?—one particular institution (e.g., the Roman Catholic Church) need not be singled out for our ire; rather institutionalism as a whole might be the real enemy.
To determine the degree of institutionalism one might ask to what extent any particular, organized entity borrows for its legitimacy from a System that is already anathema, or adheres to dogmatic and seemingly overly time-worn or incomplete principles. If so, sensing any such defects signals possible endangerment to one’s spiritual well-being and ultimate fulfillment, as I see it. Viewed as such, institutions can be harbingers of being less than God desires of us to be in the sacred design of Creation. One may feel more comfortable in one church more than in another. And yet the true test is how institutionalized that church is, not simply with regard to its inter-relationship with the existing government, but also with its fundaments as exemplified via its unique praxis.
Choosing to join a church (or any organized group for that matter), boils down to deciding to be a free and independent being who chooses to be or not to be…institutionalized. That choice is a highly personal, singularly unique judgment call that can only be made from a place of long experience, deep mentation, and honest faith in God as God is made manifest to each of us. In this sense one might contemplate on the following Biblical Chapter/verse:
The Humbled and Exalted Christ
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11 NKJV
