Community myths

Nick's post reminds me, as does something more lengthy from the Tall Skinny Kiwi (not to mention spending last weekend in Texas) of the curious, unshakeable conviction some Americans have that having lots of guns in the community makes everyone safer. There is little evidence to support that point of view, but some people are utterly convinced of it and will not countenance a different point of view.

Equally well, try telling an Australian that their quarantine rules are more than a little over-the-top (you get fined for taking an apple from the aeroplane into the country, and airport sniffer dogs seek you out; they're particularly concerned about cheese, too, for reasons quite beyond me), and they will look at you with a horrified stare, and say "but it's essential: we have a fragile ecosystem and must protect it". They learned this at their mother's knee, and had it reconfirmed through school, and nothing will shake them.

Of course, we all have this baggage we carry around (I don't know what community myths Brits tend to hold on to: perhaps someone can tell me). I guess it must be well-studied in psychology (though not by me). And these myths are so deeply ingrained that we seldom get to see ourselves as others do: you have to live outside your own culture for quite a while to get de-programmed (or maybe re-programmed).

And it's hardly an original thought, but I'm bothered too about the extent to which the same shared psychosis affects the Christian community. "The truth as we have received it" is often all that we have, but we imagine it's the same thing as the truth that, say, the apostles received. But it ain't necessarily so.