Indoctrination: Control Or Transformation?

​Full disclosure, prior to Wednesday of this week I had no idea who Charlie Kirk was. I'm not sure I'd ever heard his name. Make of that what you wish. But clearly, just two days later, I'd have to be living in a social media cemetery to not know who he is.

As is the case in the aftermath of major news stories, the social media algorithms have aligned to make sure I am not overlooked - the algorithm decide there are some stories we are all one way or another going to read.

And have an opinion about.

Because opinions + differing opinions + resulting emotional conflicts = more clicks.

But that's not what this article is about.

Many of the Charlie Kirk videos that began popping up in my news feed were related to his outspoken belief that college is a scam. I am not here to debate that belief or have much to say about Kirk's beliefs at all.

What I do want to reflect on is one of the main reasons Kirk used to promote his beliefs about the college system. And that is, Kirk believed that colleges are indoctrinating our kids and not educating them. After watching several of his videos related to this idea, I spent some time pondering this idea of indoctrination.

My pondering started with acknowledging the truth that indoctrination is everywhere. Maybe it's in the lecture halls and classrooms, but it doesn't start and end there. Not by a longshot.

Family indoctrinates us into what’s polite, normal, or shameful.

Culture indoctrinates us into what’s beautiful, successful, or worthy.

Workplaces indoctrinate us into “the way we do things here.”

Media and politics indoctrinate us into what deserves our fear or our trust.

Even religion indoctrinates us, not only into rituals but into worldviews and values.

We are all indoctrinating; we are all being indoctrinated.

So maybe the real question isn’t where and when indoctrination is happening, but toward what end it’s happening. Is it shaping people toward freedom, wisdom, and compassion, or toward fear, control, and conformity?

I think about Jesus. Jesus was all about indoctrination, but stands in stark contrast to the way indoctrination usually works.

Indoctrination often seeks to force ideas until they're absorbed unquestioningly. But Jesus almost never forced belief. Instead, he invited people to "come and see", to follow, to question, to wrestle.

Jesus was much bigger on stories than political or corporate slogans. He taught through parables, which opened people to imagine the deeper lessons.

Jesus sought to provoke thought not shut it down.

Indoctrination is often about controlling minds and behaviors. Jesus gave people the dignity of choice. When Jesus told the rich young ruler if he truly wanted to experience all there was to experience spiritually in life, he'd need to give everything he had to the poor. The rich young ruler walked away knowing he couldn't do that. And Jesus let him.

Jesus often widened freedom instead of narrowing its path.

Indoctrination can often have at it's core a motive to pursue outward conformity; Jesus was and is always after internal transformation.

If indoctrination means shaping how people see the world, Jesus did that relentlessly. But the end goal wasn't to create blind followers, it was to awaken people to truth, love, and abundant life.

And here's another important piece of Jesus' mission to shape lives - he didn't see politics as the avenue or the enemy to defeat on the way to shaping lives. Jesus worked through relationships - eating with sinners, speaking with the outsiders, calling ordinary people to be his disciples.

I have to say about Kirk, I give him credit when it came to his mission to dismantle the college system he called a scam. He went TO the colleges to do it. He spoke to the students directly. He not only willingly had conversations with students who disagreed with him, but he invited those conversations. And in the many videos I watched, he did so in a non-attacking way.

We are all indoctrinating; we are all being indoctrinated. It's unavoidable. But how we go about giving and receiving indoctrination, well there we have a whole lot of choice.