During my tenure at my old church there was a certain vernacular people spoke in I never adopted. Using Christian terms sprinkled in to every conversation or saying God even directs a purchase for new sheets for your bed room. If I wrote this a year ago I would have better examples but more distance is a good thing in this case as memories are starting to fade.
All groups have rituals that the members participate in to show their allegance to the group. This Christianese along with homeschooling, voting along Tea Party lines and many other works to fit in illustrate my point. There comes a point in time for some that the level of belief or works needed to fit in are too much to try to fit in any longer. It is too painful to pretend and wear the mask any longer.
Any group with that has many tests for conformity are unhealthy in my opinion. Also, their core teachings probably don't hold up to outside scrutiny either. If you are too busy trying to fit in there is no time to second guess what you believe and why.
I have to laugh when I discuss the Catholic Church with my Evangelical family and friends. They claim that they have a works based salvation plan but they can't see they do as well. It is like they are brainwashed and can't see the problems with their side of the street.
We as humans find it so easy to point the fingers at the shortcomings of the opposition without seeing our own. It is painful to acknowledge that I can be totally wrong about something or be self centered. If we can look introspectively at ourselves and own our shortcomings then personal growth can occur. This would totally take the wind out of the sails of fundamentalism and pietism. Instead of faking it and pretending to keep the rules, people actually worked on inner transformation then being a Christian might start to carry some weight again.
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