Texts:

Community with God. (1 Corinthians 1:9) "God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."

Community with each other. (1 John 1:6) "…we have fellowship with one another…"

Out of community. (1 Corinthians 5:2) "Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?"

Statement:

We are a nation of individuals with core values that are intensely rooted in personal freedom reflected in the written, and agreed upon, rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Seen in Entertainment:

Entertainment media portray this independence from old characters like the Lone Ranger to the modern Luke Skywalker. The music industry also produce their share of endorsements to independence in the classics of Sammy David Junior "I gotta be me"Frank Sinatra's "I did it my way" to the contemporary idols of the music world whose songs are personified in themselves as individuals. The world of literature has published endless volumes of self help books including the best seller "Looking out for no. 1."

Purpose:

The purpose of these influences is to connect you with yourself rather than connect you with the transcendent God and Creator clearly pointed out in the agreed upon documents that form our nation. The most individual people reside in the United States. It is reflected in unpopular taxation. Our taxes are supposed to further the common good from roads, parks and recreation, school districts and welfare. Lower taxes may be good for the individual but obviously destructive to the common good.

Social circle:

It is common for an individual to withdraw from community at large and insulate themselves in the tight circle of selective family members and friends. The individual forms a minute society that can look after itself. That society owes no one anything and at the same time expects very little from anyone else. The purpose of the individual is now completely in their own hands fueled by the media infomercials of personal success.

Seen in democracy:

Democracy is founded upon the individual by creating equal rights, the biggest right being the personal vote. But taken to the extreme that vote is driven by personal ego by thinking of the world at large in terms of you preferring yourself to anyone else. The opposite of this would put the government in control of all community organizations, churches and even families. But do you want the government to tell you how to live making decisions for you? Be very careful how you think in terms of purpose because when it is captured in terms of the individual it can make you successful but leave you in an isolated world that is terrifying.

The terror of the individual:

Tigers are created to live solitary but wolves are created to live in packs. Mankind was created to live somewhere between the two. For instance, some individuals give more value to social bonds like an athlete who is part of a team, he may have a personal best record to break, but he cannot do that without the team. Others give more credence to personal control and success.

Examples of the Tiger:

Fictitious characters from the world of literature like Sherlock Holmes are powerfully self-reliant figures that seek personal fulfillment by proving they do not need the police or their branch of trained detectives. James Bond would be another fictitious character, created by Ian Fleming, who thrives in isolation.

Comparing nations:

Asia, Africa and South America place a far greater value on community than the individual. In 1995 there was a disastrous earthquake that destroyed a central part of Japan. The news commentary from the United States was not necessarily the death toll and financial cost but the lack of public looting and rioting. People were filmed for the evening news standing in line for necessities like waiting for a bus. The closest we have come to this in the United States is the hours that followed terrorist attacks on the Trade Towers where people of no public position joined a collective force to help others beyond their own individual needs. A few celebrities did this in the wake of hurricane Katrina (although they got media mileage out of it).

Compare Anglo-American styles:

On a minute scale, the English eat with a knife and folk, and the folk are held face down in the left hand. It is not practical but it is the way people in England do it. In the United States the knife is hardly used and the folk is in the right hand face up. There is no right and wrong to this, it is just the way people do it. Most people would call this a culture.

Taken out of your culture:

If you were taken out of your culture and transported to a foreign country how much of your personal identity would remain? If you were from the United States a great deal would remain because we are a nation of individuals. As much as this is strength in times of war, crisis and death it is the most powerful weakness we have. It means we can leave our marriage, home, children, career or church without thinking about whom it affects apart from you as an individual.

We are not meant to be tigers:

When Woody Allen had an affair with Mia Farrow's daughter he said," the heart wants what the heart wants." The bottom line is simply this, people do live like tigers in a solitary world, eating what they want, sleeping with whom they like, and going where they want all in the cause of personal and individual freedom.

How we got here:

Over time, self-esteem has become a major priority in every area of society. If you constantly recourse the phrase, "you are wonderful just the way you are" you will be chanting the mantra of Sammy Davis Jr. Frank Sinatra or Luke Skywalker who relies on the force rather than people.

Defining self-esteem:

Pride goes by the name of self-esteem in the tight social circle the individual will create. All women will be attractive, good in bed and great with the kids. All men are moral, decisive and assertive in the direction of their life. The children are all honor students and will qualify for a college sponsor. Although this is not absolutely true, people who live in this tight circle of self-esteem are usually obnoxious preferring to talk at people rather than with them. Most observers can see they need self-esteem because they have none.

Why self-esteem:

People of this type can be prone to depression, eating disorders, and aesthetic sexual relationships through the Internet, substance abuse and get lonely very quickly. In other words they have clinical problems, not like a broken leg that receives treatment and is repaired. People with an excess of self-esteem tend to be excessive and highly deluded by their optimism and quickly become bullies. The atmosphere this individual lives in is filled with voices that teach, tell, command and indoctrinate that all your problems reside in you, therefore, you need to be liberated from this straight jacket by accepting who you are.

Compare students in the US with students in Asia, Africa and South America:

The US student will often start a conversation with "I am….." followed by a personal trait. Students in other countries will say "I am…." followed by some type of social identity. We write autobiographies and they write family histories. US advertising appeals to personal choice whereas other countries appeal to bringing people together. Although, there have been advances in recent years about the way we advertise. We talk to more people for less time whereas other students of the world speak to less people for longer periods. Feeling good about yourself is central to our life but knowing you are making a community contribution is key to the rest of the world. There is a saying that in the United States the squeaky wheel gets the oil but in the rest of the world the nail that stands out gets pounded down.

Parents are still individuals:

Mothers in other countries carry their child with them strapped to their back or front for the first year of the child's life. In the United States we toss them into daycare and expect an emotional bond with the child later in life. Look around a restaurant at a family with small children. A three-year-old choose what they want to eat. By aged seven they open their own mail and email. Age twelve they ignore parent's guidance replacing those leadership models for lesser models like a movie star. By sixteen the guidance for a life-long partner for the parent is totally ignored.

Why men are confused:

Men are said to have male and female traits. A man is supposed to be capable of being decisive, assertive and yet empathetic with both strength and sensitivity. But life shows you women are far more caring for the very young and very old contributing more time and money to the community than any given man. A identity of a man has largely been lost in culture.

Explaining culture:

Culture explains so much. But what is culture? People belong to a number of groups in addition to their family but they are not bond to these additional groups. The United States offers a buffet of groups to belong to including the church. Why do other nations have a limited offer of groups to belong to? Because the United States is derived from every nation under heaven. Each culture brings with it their own groups. The roots of the group you may belong to probably lay in a foreign country. This is why the culture of a foreign country is more defined than our own.

Pioneers:

Social mobility weakens the connection in these groups. People with strong social connections did not colonize the east coast because they left their social ties to colonize. Highly individual people accomplished colonization. We are the sons and daughters of their day.

America the beautiful:

Rural settings foster a sense of community more than the urban. The "giver" in the rural community will be the "receiver" at some point. In the urban setting you can be in great need with no one to meet that need.

Television:

Television not only gives people a strong sense of being an individual but it isolates you. It not only brings the world into your living room but it keeps you in your living room. Family members have their own "personal" television under the same roof. Television is intended for entrainment but is absolutely anti-social.

Money:

Money does the same thing. It can isolate the more you have. The illusion is that you do not need people as much because money replaces them. The "giver" and "receiver" that flourished in the rural setting is almost totally eroded by wealth. You have no need for community. Real income has increased over the past ten years but literal giving to charitable organizations has decreased. Wealth enables charitable giving but does not guarantee it.

Unity means war:

You cannot have unity without community. Common and shared goals bring unity. Instead of dividing up the family chores between the family members, all chores are carried out together from yard work to cleaning up after dinner. The conflict of Germany and Japan in WWII against the allied forces, the Soviets in the Cold War, with Iran in 1980, Iraq in 1991 and the subsequent war after 911, unity and patriotism have never been at an all time high like today. When you are convinced of who "they" are you are convinced of whom "you" are. Few things unite people more than a common enemy.

Business community:

But production has moved from family to factory with business moving from face to face to contracts over the Internet. The result is not a loss of business but integrity. There are fewer restraints when there is a lack of community.

The cost of being an individual:

To be an individual in the United States has a high price that comes with it. Community also has a high price to it. We enjoy personal freedom and take the credit for personal success. We are proud of achievements and enjoy our individual privacy. We are free to move when we want and make individual choices. We highly value innovation and creativity seeking new things unhindered by authority. We have put into writing that certain truths are "self evident" so we are more accepting of the individual.

If you have roots that are not in the United States, but you live in the United States, you may protest, argue and defend appropriately, your country. But you would not go to war like the Serbs against the Bosnian Muslims treating each other less than an animal. Being an individual stops you at a certain point from stoning your adulteress wife, cutting off the hands of a thief, watching someone starve to death and castrating a sex offender. This is the price of being an individual. The victim and the perpitrator have "self evident" rights.

Where people live:

Most in the United States would not live in another country where laws prevent you from criticizing the government who also own the television and radio stations along with the press. Where advertising requires you to be more industrious and chewing gum is banned. Throwing garbage on the floor carries a high fine and not flushing a public toilet could cost you a month's wages. But this same country that we would not live in has few slums and a standard of living in line with the prosperity of the United States. Unemployment is not heard of and cities are well planned to be socially and environmentally conscious. There are few traffic jams because of public transport and every home has affordable high speed Internet. The intolerance for illegal drugs carries a life sentence. Is this not the place we want to raise our children? But this is Singepore.

Personal cost:

As much as we love our individual rights and freedom we are the worst for depression, loneliness, homicide and teenage suicide with stress related illnesses that two generations ago would have been cured with a brisk walk in the early morning and three square meals a day. Insurance companies were looked upon as a "rock" in the community now those same insurance companies want to make you the rock. The US Military used to have the slogan "Uncle Sam needs you" but now we have "Be all you can be." When you forgo something bigger than you, country, family or God where do you turn to for a personal identity? You only have yourself. But if success is highly personal then so is failure. If your marriage, career, education or ministry fails who do you blame? Yourself.

Examples:

Ronald Reagan can divorce and remarry in the United States and become president. But Prince Charles cannot divorce and remarry and expect to be King in England. An arranged marriage in the Asian world is more successful than the individual marriage in the United States. The arranged marriage does not begin with love but commitment and grows into love. Our marriages begin with love and lack commitment as love wanes. Arranged marriage in the United States is not a reality but the advice of loving parents is as close as it gets. But are our children listening to our advice?

Government:

Special interest groups drive the issues than concern them at the cost of the collective good. In the same way your personal interest can become a detriment to the common good. You keep your home clean because you value it but at the same time will throw trash on the sidewalk because it is not your sidewalk. The bottom line is that everyone's business is nobodies business. This is why LA is covered with smog in the middle of the day at the earths atmosphere gets worse because it is nobodies business.

Laws:

This is the main reason why we have taxes in place of community contribution. This is why we have fishing and hunting season and laws that determine how many crab and lobster fishermen can haul in to the shore. This is why we have a car pool lane for two or more passengers. The same goes for the recent smoking laws. All these laws are for the common good and require personal restraint. This is why Rudolph Giuliani was attacked for making reforms in New York City but heralded as a savior for cleaning it up. People do not want to be governed but enjoy its benefits.

So, what restraint do you support? Luggage scanning at airports? Disclosure of all sex offenders? Disclosure of all offenders? School uniforms? Disclosure of all HIV patients? Required seat belt wearing? No tobacco advertising on television or radio? Sobriety checkpoints for alcoholics? Speed limits? No smoking in public places? Wiretaps on suspected terrorists? Fingerprint ID for everyone within the boarders of the United States? Does any of this take away your identity as an individual?

Summary:

We have certain rights that have been written down and agreed upon that echo the Word of God that all men are created equal. That individuality has been called into community with God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and with each other.

Conclusion:

Your gift to God is all you are and all you have.

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