Resistance is Futile. You Will be Assimilated.

In a post I wrote a little while ago, I proposed that christians behave like Daleks when they insist upon unquestioning submission from others. Today I'd like to suggest that when they mistake uniformity for unity, they end up acting like the Borg!

According to the Star Trek database, the Borg are "a cybernetic life-form thousands of years old which is part organic, part artificial life… Born humanoid, they are almost immediately implanted with bio-chips that link their brains to a collective consciousness via a unique subspace frequency emitted by each drone."

These are creatures which live, think and operate as a collective, having no individualism and no self-identity. They brook no opposition to their plans, merely absorbing and integrating any other lifeforms they come across. Any race who have the misfortune to be discovered by the Borg are totally subsumed. Each individual loses all sense of being distinctive and ends up just like every other Borg drone. Now you might think this is incredibly aggressive and violent, but apparently, "the Borg only want to 'raise the quality of life' of the species they assimilate".

Do you see where I'm going with this?

How many churches insist (whether spoken or otherwise) that every member adhere to the particular set of doctrines approved by that specific group?

How many church members have been "thrown under the bus" by leaders who insist on conformity to their particular 'vision'?

How many people have been made to feel uncomfortable or unwelcome at church because they didn't dress right, or speak right, or act right? Or think right!

How many times have hostilities broken out between brothers and sisters because they have a different understanding or interpretation of scripture?

And how many times has the church justified this type of behaviour (like the Borg), claiming it's all for the good of those they target?

Jesus prayed that his followers would be one, just as he and the Father are one. But he and his Father are not the same as each other - they don't need to be. They are different but united. Unity speaks of many parts coming into union, making a complex whole.

Uniformity on the other hand implies an attempt to make everyone the same - uniform - just like the Borg.