Ferrets and Cults

Last week I had a long overdue chance to spend a full evening with my oldest brother. Over 4 hours at his favourite pub we did a lot of catching up on life and exploring what it is that makes each of us who we are.

One of the themes of our conversation was the way each of us has been strongly drawn to certain subcultures over the last couple decades. I've invested a lot of myself in Evangelical Christianity, Pastoral work, and "Extreme" sports; and found a lot of my identity through those communities. My brother has been deeply committed to; well, those are his to share or secret, but let's say that there is not a lot of natural affinity between our peer groups.

Despite the strong differences, we've each found ourselves having significant roles and circles of influence, and been involved in welcoming and initiating many newcomers to our respective circles. In many ways we have taken similar steps on very different paths, and as a result we can relate quite closely to one another's experiences.

It may be age and stage of life or something, but I find myself concerned by how isolated some of my subcultures are from those not included. I appreciate that the very nature of a subculture is in the difference from the common, but it's so easy to completely lose touch with the outside world.

In some cases that might be a good thing, but it easily leads to loss of perspective and extremism as we continually subdivide within our tribes to find ever more specific identities and communities. In the end we lose the ability to relate in any meaningful way between our subculture and the parts of our life lived among the masses. The scariest thing about that, at least for me, is how not frightening some of my spiritual siblings find it.