If there is one thing that is true in our culture today, it’s that most people seem to oversimplify just about everything. This happens in religious circles as well as politics. I see it in the health and fitness space. I see it with various world-views and philosophies.

For example, if you’re a Republican and you find out someone else is a Democrat, you tend to automatically categorize that person as someone who supports killing babies, taxing the rich, government-run health care and recreational drug use. If you’re a Democrat and find out someone else is a Republican, you might tend to think that person wants to control women’s bodies, give huge tax cuts to big corporations, don’t care about the costs of health care burdens for so many people and don’t want anyone to ever have any fun.

In the health and fitness space, people will focus all of their attention on making sure they “hit their macros” or “avoid carbs” or get just the right constellation of exercises done. It continues into world-view and philosophies like materialism. Recall the famous line from Carl Sagan at the beginning of each episode of his show “The Cosmos” where he would say, “The universe is all there is, all there ever was and all there will ever be.”

What if you’re a Christian in our culture today? For many people, the moment that they hear that you’re a Christian, they already know that you are a bigoted, closed-minded, homophobic, racist, hate-monger. They get all that from knowing that you’re “a Christian.”

If you voted for one presidential candidate, you get one list of atrocities assigned to you and if you voted for the other presidential candidate, you get another list of atrocities assigned to you. Everything gets reduced down to such overly-simplistic judgements.

In reality, almost everything we do, say, think, desire or choose is a product of such an innumerable set of variables that nobody could ever possibly calculate them all. Every single human being ever born has a completely individualized set of experiences, circumstances, values, tastes, desires, talents and passions that make us all completely unique.

There has never been another human being who has been born into the same family as you at the same time as you with the same circumstances as you in the same culture as you with the same economic status as you and the same passions as you and the same skills as you and interacted the same exact way as you with the exact same people as you, etc., etc. etc.

You get the idea.

While it can be useful to group people together based on statistical data, there are circumstances where that is acceptable and other circumstances where it is better to treat each person as the unique individual that they are. 

Let’s look at an illustration to see if that will help make this more clear. 

I have coached small groups of boys at church camp, from 4th grade up to 9th grade, about 8 different times over the past 8 or 9 years. After this many experiences, there are certain things that I know going into camp. I know, for instance, that young boys are messy, smelly and can’t ever seem to stay together in a group. They also never seem to remember things like water, notebooks, pens/pencils, showers, deodorant and clean underwear.

While this is all true, based on my own experience, there are some boys who are neat and tidy, pay attention, participate in group discussions, are typically well-prepared and reliable. So, for these kiddos, all the things that are true of the group are not necessarily all true of each individual boy. 

It is important, therefore, to remember the level at which we are dealing with people. When you are dealing with groups of people, it’s more efficient to treat them as a group, with all of the various attributes that are mostly true of the group. When you are dealing with an individual, you should treat them individually, being ready to challenge any assumption you may have made based on their group membership. The group identity is an OK starting point, but you have to recognize that part of dealing with an individual is to determine where they differ from the larger group.

Suffice it to say, it would be better if we could all learn to keep in mind how utterly complex humans are and, when regarding people in terms of groups, understand that these groups are based on statistical averages and not necessary attributes of each member. And when regarding people on an individual level, deal with them as the unique individual that they are, ask questions, limit assumptions and allow them to explain how or why they do or think the things they do. You might understand them better. You might even find that you like them!

Imagine that! Liking someone you disagree with! Scandalous!

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