“Drink the Kool-Aid. Join the cult. Surrender your independence. . .”

When it comes to life in our modern congregations, we think we have to guard against mindless conformity when what really threatens our spiritual health is our radical individualism. The Scriptures tell us what we should be laboring for, striving for, and praying for. We are not told to work at maintaining independence of thought. We are not told to build some ecclesiastical variant of academic freedom. We are commanded to strive for likemindedness, to be of one mind.

‘Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits’ (Rom. 12:16).

‘That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 15:6).

‘Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you’ (2 Cor. 13:11).

‘Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel’ (Phil. 1:27).

‘Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind’ (Phil. 2:2).

‘Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous’ (1 Pet. 3:8).

‘Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 15:5).

‘For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state’ (Phil. 2:20).

Allow me the privilege of translating all of this into modern American English for you. Drink the Kool-Aid. Join the cult. Surrender your independence. Swallow the party line. Go baaa like a sheep. Strive for the nirvana of acquiescence.
Douglas Wilson

4 Comments

  2. Underneath the excessive verbiage, one might sense that things are not going too swimmingly at “Pastor” Wilson’s own cult.

  3. I cannot agree MORE with the above commenters – Wilson missed the meaning by a mark wide enough to drive a freight train through. In this case, the stopped clock metaphor does not apply. Incredible.

    I want to call attention to CNW’s closer reading – very well put. The fact that Wilson has to browbeat exhort ‘his’ flock to “be of one mind” indicates that maybe, just maybe, people are beginning to take a peak behind the curtain afterall. If so, then good on them!

  4. I understand the mandate to be of one mind, but does it have to be Doug Wilson’s mind? Can’t it be the mind of Christ?

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