Tag - You're "IT"

Whatever "It" is - you're that. How do I know? Because I've 'tagged' you - slapped a nice label on your beliefs, your thought process, your movement. Now that you've been labeled you are much easier to deal with because I've defined you by this label. Once defined, you're easier to dismiss.

I've seen this so many times in the educational system. Kids are labeled, put in categories, groupings, classes - because otherwise we would have to deal with each one as an individual, and the work required in that would be overwhelming. So we label them and move them on - never giving them a chance to break free.

I'm writing this because I'm in the process of reading Brian McLaren's book "Everything Must Change." I intend on writing a couple of blogs along the way, but the first one is this: Why do people feel the need to label themselves right off the bat? He spends almost a whole chapter explaining the labels he has attached to the "Emergent Movement" and the terminology that goes along with it.

This has always puzzled me - because once labeled, you're defined, which is, by definition, boxed in and much, much easier to set aside or dismiss completely. The world does this with Christianity, they label us and then dismiss us. Why do we feel the need to do it to ourselves? Emerging, Traditional, Contemporary, etc. It's a self-defeating process, and has an underlying aspect of self-exaltation. You tend to define yourself for the purpose of separating yourself from "the pack" (which is only done if you feel that you are better - not simply different) - not realizing that as you do this, you're just creating your own pack.

Let the world throw the labels at us. Let us live such lives that they can't help but notice something powerfully different. Let us do as the early church did, simply call ourselves "disciples" or "believers" - humble terms that show complete submission to Christ. Anything else is giving them another excuse to dismiss us.