Start From the Heart

We talked in our politics class today about how actions ("I did X action") beget habits ("I am in the habit of doing X"), which beget character ("it is in my character to do X"), which beget customs ("it is our collective custom to do X"), which beget institutions ("we have institutions to reinforce our doing X").  Governments sometimes try to change people, but because they come at things from an institutional level – setting up agencies, instituting rules – they don't tend to be very effective in getting people to change.

 

Some of my fellow students made the connection to religious institutions, some of which have been very effective in changing peoples' behavior.  What is interesting to note, in light of this paradigm of actions-habits-character-customs-institutions, is that indeed those institutions that have been most successful have been those that have not started from the institutional level in either their method or message.  In other words, they are not themselves big bureaucracies, nor do they invite interested adherents with bureaucratic routines, like rituals or ceremonies.  Rather, they are usually smaller, home-based groups (or if larger organizations, their main thrust of outreach and welcoming is through smaller cell groups), and they usually proclaim heart changes, dealing with behavioral issues at the core rather than on an external or ceremonial level. 

 

I do believe government as a role to play in issues of character – not to teach a certain religion or enforce a certain moral code, but to provide a framework for helping people make good choices that will be good for them and beneficial to society, like not smoking or driving carefully or selling safe medications.  But there is an institution that I believe is called to help change human behavior, and that is the Church with a capital C.  And it can, as an institution, best lead that change by starting from the heart.