Life as a Member of Solid Rock Vista - #6

Below is a link to an article that discusses why we may make poor choices at times. Sometimes it can be because others around us are making poor choices. At the moment I’m thinking specifically of James’ polls, where he questioned each person about their commitment to him, the group, and/or the ideas. It was pubic and everybody had to answer. He’d start at one side of the room and work his way, one by one, to the other side of the room.

These polls were always done with everybody present, and each person had to answer. There were many, many of these polls done throughout the years, probably at least several times a year. There was never any notice that a poll would be done - they were always done randomly without warning. The shocking thing to me now is that we all answered in lock step every single time, and it was always in the affirmative. Why is this? This article offers an explanation. It’s something called Normative Social Influence:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normative_Social_Influence

Here is an excerpt from the link:

“Normative social influence is one form of conformity. It is the influence of other people that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted by them. This often leads to public compliance—but not necessarily private acceptance—of the group's social norms.”

There was always a lot of talk about how free everybody was to leave, and also about how devoted to truth the group was, but we NEVER talked about the polls. We never openly questioned why James did them, how we felt about them, or what their purpose was. We just participated in them, and when they were over we carried on as if nothing had happened. Looking back now I can see that they were obviously a test of people’s loyalty but we never spoke up about them, or talked about them at all. And we all answered in lockstep, each and every time. I always hated undergoing them. It really felt like an interrogation.


Questions:

How come James never mentions these polls in his podcasts? Do regular churches do this sort of thing?

What might happen if somebody answered differently during these public polls? How often do you think that happened? Do you think people ever wanted to answer differently but were afraid?

What do current members think of these polls? What SHOULD they think of these polls? Do they ever talk to their family members about the events written in these posts?