Scott Peck wrote several good books after The Road Less Traveled. I got the
above information from The different Drum–Community Making and Peace. He
talked about this from pages 187 through 200. Since this book was published
in 1988, you may be able to find it in a library.

Ha! Ain’t that the truth.

Thanks for the insight Bill. Interesting overlay of that model Peck lays out. Which book are you quoting from? I read The Road Less Traveled a long time ago but I can’t remember if these levels are in there or not.

Scott Peck said that his observations of his patients over the years have lead him to the conclusion that there are at least four levels of spiritual development. For lack of better names, he called them Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 people. He said that many Level 2 people have earlier in their lives been Level 1 people–people who were living their lives in utter chaos, because they did whatever they wanted with no thoughts about the results of their actions. They had few morals or ethics; they were the “natural man”. Eventually, at some point in their lives, the pain they were enduring as a result of their way of life caused them to become willing to latch onto anything that could make the pain go away. For those Level 1 people transitioning into Level 2 people, that “anything” was a church. Whichever church they joined, it provided them with a set of rules to live by. Those rules gave them stability in their lives, freedom from the chaos and pain that they had been living in before. Those rules satisfied the need they had, so they continue clinging to those rules, and as a result continue to have a much better life than they had as Level 1 people.

I’ll skip Level 3 people, because they aren’t relevant to this discussion and get to Level 4 people. Scott Peck described Level 4 people as mystics. They are people who realize that they really know very little about God, life, and “reality”, when compared to everything that can be known. And they have reached the point where they have learned to accept that there are many, many mysteries that they will probably never understand. But they are still trying to understand whatever they may eventually be able to understand. So they keep looking for the truth, yet at the same time accepting that their current level of knowledge is no better than it is.

Scott Peck said that he believes that all the major world churches are filled with level 2 people, and to a much lesser extent Level 4 people. The problem is that Level 2 and Level 4 people are looking for different things. Level 2 people are clinging to the stability that a church provides, while Level 4 people are to some extent looking for truth, for opportunities for service, and for other people who share an interest in the pursuit of the truth. Level 2 people distrust and even fear Level 4 people, because Level 2 people feel that Level 4 people are threatening the staus quo, the rules that Level 2 people are trying to live their lives by. Level 2 people want to have a simplified view of life and of God, because this simplified view gives their lives the stability they need through a simple set of rules to follow. Level 4 people threaten that simplified view by asking too many questions.

It seems to me that Scott Peck’s analysis gives insight into what you are discussing here. The topic of your discussion here is really just a narrower part of a discussion of the ongoing clash between Level 2 people and Level 4 people that is occuring in all the major churches.

Please do not misunderstand what Peck is saying about Level 2 people. He is not saying that Level 2 people are wrong or bad or anything like that. He realizes that there is a spiritual growth “path” that we are all on and that we just are where we are.

I hope this helps.

I think OOOOT hit the nail on the head for me. We need to remember that unlike most other Christian churches, our Sunday practice of going to church really just provides opportunities to serve. It is a time to strengthen those around us, and to lift up the arms which hang down. It isn’t necessarily a place where OUR minds get stretched.

It is a preparatory place. When we go to church, we are going to the Outer Court, the House of Aaronic Priesthood Ordinances. It’s even run by the president of the priest’s quorum, the bishop. It is where faith, repentence and baptism is taught, and anything beyond that really shouldn’t be the focus. It may look like a building, but really it is a stage with a big curtain behind it, and the purpose it serves is to prepare people for what’s behind the curtain.

And what is behind the curtain? The temple, yes. But in addition to being a house of glory, a house of order, it is also a house of work! So much of the purpose of the temple relates to getting something done, there is hardly a place for sitting and pondering -other than the Celestial Room. But even then, the purpose of the Celestial room is a place to “finish” pondering, rather than a place to start pondering …and discussions are always hushed …and more people are always coming in …you feel like you should stand give your seat …so you only feel like you can discuss the most pressing issues with whoever you may be visiting the temple with.

In short, the temple isn’t tailored for School of the Prophets-like discussion, even though it requires the same sort of faith and open-mindedness.

So where else can we turn? Our homes should be temples, of course. And our homes easily accomodate free thinking and discussion (if we’re running them right). But having a large number of people with different thoughts/experiences/education/points of view/etc over for dinner is quite a task for just one dinner, and an impractical burden for continuous meetings.

And (until recently) brainstretching discussion grew only where it could take root, here and there, mostly in missionary apartments and (I assume) in some places at BYU. (I went to the U, sorry.) Now that I think about it, I can think of a number of individuals who have gone inactive because their intellectual needs weren’t being met at the church (which, like I said, isn’t necessarily the church’s purpose) so they felt that their intellectual needs weren’t being met by The Church.

Fortunately, the Lord has now blessed us with the internet. A place where private, even annonymous, discussions can take place, and even those who have a hard time putting together coherent sentences when speaking can take their time expressing themselves.

It’s nice to be here.