Christianity: Are You Sheeplike or a Goat in Personality?
I Don’t Care: And I Don’t Think God Does Either
So, when I was a Jehovah’s Witness (JW) one of the teachings we were taught was that we should aspire to be like sheep in personality and not like goats.
There are multiple scriptural verses where God’s people are described as sheep or sheeplike, and Jesus and God are both referred to as shepherds for their ‘flock.’
So what is all this about?
Why are the poor goats given such a bad rap?
And, let us not even consider the horror of being called a black sheep — or maybe…hmmm…yes — lets.
Now that I am not affiliated with any religious group and have my critical thinking cap well and truly ensconced on my head —
I want to examine this a bit closer methinks…
yes, I do…
and ponder over the pros and cons of being either sheeplike or goatlike.
So hitch up your woolly undies and let’s go for a ride.
The Parable of The Sheep And The Goats
So the parable of the sheep and goats immediately comes to mind. Here it partially is:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory…he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left”…(Matthew 25:31–34, English Standard Version).
What does that even mean?
This scripture has been used for years as a weapon against people who think differently or do not go along with the crowd.
But… is it really what it is saying?
In the time of Jesus, in the Middle East, sheep and goats were often indistinguishable from one another in a flock. Usually, only the shepherd who was intimately familiar with his flock could tell them apart. To the outside eye, they could be tough to tell apart.
Today, this is not so obvious as sheep and goats in most parts of the world have been bred to be distinctively different. So if you were not aware of considering the time period that this parable was written then you would overlook that point straight away.
So, maybe this parallel was indicating that Jesus as the Shepherd could separate the flock, as he could see past outside appearances? He knew something that the average ordinary person could not see.
What could he see?
Heather Disher, writing about this in BeyondToday identified the difference as being that: A sheep is led by its shepherd. A goatherd is led by his goat.
Sheep look towards a shepherd to protect them from the environment, whereas goats lead the goatherd wherever they wish to go and destroy the environment around them along the way.
Sheep trust in the shepherd and where he is leading them, whereas goats buck and fight and wish to find their path and where to forage.
Disher speaks about sheeplike people as being those who are willing to listen to the “pull of God’s spirit” and who allow themselves “to be led.”
The danger of this is that everyone interprets where they find the “pull of God’s spirit” so differently, and who they think should be doing the leading. For some, it is an affiliation with a particular religious body, and they follow dogma to the letter, and for others, it is a lot more mystical and open to interpretation.
Humans tend to make rules for everything and everyone and create separation and argue why their way is right and correct, and everyone else is wrong.
For me, I would interpret being sheeplike as listening to the quiet pull of the divine within ourselves and being willing to both listen and then follow this instinct.
As this willingness to be led is something contained within our hearts and souls creating connection both within us and outside of ourselves, it is not something that is immediately obvious to other people.
But what about the part, where Jesus condemns the goats to a fiery hell and tells them to go away?
I have no idea.
It seems pretty damn judgmental to me.
I don’t accept the Bible as the literal word of God, but I take its ancient wisdom as interesting to reflect on and pull out gems that can assist me in understanding and navigating through life today.
Let us face it; human behavior hasn’t changed much in 2000 years. You can determine that from what you read in the Bible as well as other ancient texts.
I know that people are NOT exactly like sheep or goats, or any other creature for that matter.
The parable was using an analogy — a comparison of traits that we can think about and contemplate.
We all have a combination of traits we are born with as well as environmental influences that impact and shape our personality as we grow into adulthood.
Being Goats
I like the fact that some of us are born to be leaders.
We are not scared to challenge the thinking of the crowd.
We are not sheeplike.
I am proud that we have people who will act as the shepherd and sheepdogs and do the nipping at the ankles and move fences to get the crowd to move along in the direction or line of thinking where they want them to go.
There are many instances where the majority thinking that prevails may be morally repugnant to us.
At one point in time slavery was legal in Great Britain and America. It was tied up so closely with the economics and big business of the day that many even ordinary people could not see how it ever could be changed or altered without the total collapse of each nation.
But a few voices became a few more, and eventually after a lot of people were willing to stick their necks out and not follow the crowd change happened — legal change.
Changes in the hearts and minds of men are much slower.
If you were sheeplike at that time, would you have been on the side of what was morally right?
Would you have been willing to put your neck out, buck the system, advocate for a different way, and have the shepherd try and put his rod around your neck and pull you back into line? Whoever you identify the shepherd as being during this time?
“I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep”. ~ Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
Contemplating this statement by a French Diplomat (long dead) is scary living as we do in today’s political climate.
Being Sheep
“Men are like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one” ~Richard Whately
Growing up in New Zealand we often would stop the car and watch as a flock of sheep were being moved from paddock to paddock. The farmer and his dogs could get the whole herd moving as one, as the entire flock would fall in behind the movements of the sheep at the front. It was rare for a lone sheep to break away, but if they did, they would desperately try and get back to the safety of the main flock as soon as they could.
It is a human tendency to want acceptance and belonging and to blend in and want to be the same, especially if our view is not the popular view. Most people will stick together, like sheep.
You only need to get two or three people (in the front) to move along in the direction you want them to go, and then the rest will follow.
Following the leader is similar to how sheep behave and is not always a good trait in humans.
“I’m a shepherd, not a sheep, and I’ve always prided myself on being a leader and not a follower” ~Dustin Diamond
We need leaders. They are essential.
Why should someone be condemned for being a leader and not being a follower?
In relation to having a relationship with God (whatever God means to us), we can be a leader also.
Questioning, critically examining, and not accepting things on face value are great traits to have. Being critical of blind following of religious texts, condemning others born into different faiths, trying to convince others your view is correct- all these are things that we need people to challenge.
We need leaders.
Political change, revolution, and scientific and medical breakthroughs often come after periods of struggle, when people are not willing to go along anymore with the crowd, and the negative aspects of group conformity outweigh the need for change.
A word of caution: This can apply to both negative and positive change as sometimes people will do anything for change — without considering that it may lead to a worse situation.
“Sheep, like people, are ungovernable when hungry” ~John Muir
Eat food people, eat food.
And snack.
Eat plenty of snacks.
“Sheep only need a single flock, but people need two: one to belong to and make them feel comfortable, and another to blame all of society’s problems on” ~ James Rozoff
Dividing everything into polarizing viewpoints is not good.
Human behavior and complex socio/political/economic problems are made up of many shades of grey.
Simplistic solutions are sought, as that is our human tendency but they often only favor the dominant cultural group and are not inclusive of all. Considering the views of only the majority and not being inclusive of other viewpoints is not the sign of a progressive society.
Not everything is black or white. Good or bad. Right or wrong.
It is the 21st century. Let us move past this tendency.
Please.
There are multiple sliding scales of normal in each of those things. What is right anyway? What is the truth? It depends upon which perspective you take, and where you are standing.
If you are a goldfish in a bowl your whole world is the bowl. You may not want your bowl to be moved into the sunroom where your water will heat up and you will slowly cook and die. But, if you are a child you may wish the fishbowl to be next to you as you have your afternoon sleep in the sunroom. You are not thinking like a fish. You are thinking like a child. And the fish dies. And you cry. And you learn that sometimes you need to think like a fish.
“Once Arden said, “Why is it that one sheep is called a sheep and multiple sheep are also called sheep?
It should be shoop and sheep.
Like, ‘Oh, look, there goes a shoop,’ and ‘Wow, there goes a lot of sheep”~Riley Carney, The Fire Stone
Yep.
Don’t be a shoop.
It is too round and sounds weird, and nobody wants to go from an ee to an oo sound. It is just wrong.
Let’s keep the word — sheep, okay.
But, you don’t have to act like a sheep or, you could if you wanted to. There is no judgment here.
Aggh…lets move on.
Being a Black Sheep
An occasional black sheep is born to a flock of white sheep due to the genetic influence of recessive traits. In some places, black wool was considered undesirable as it could not be dyed. In some areas, in the 18th and 19th century due to the influence of the church, black wool on a sheep was seen as a sign of the Devil.
It is believed that this is where the term ‘black sheep’ of the family came from — about someone being undesirable or out of favor.
But if black is your color and your style, then be a black sheep.
In my case being out of favor in my family is a good thing as I do not go along with the fundamentalist narrow religious beliefs of my mother.
I am a black sheep. I wear it with pride.
Maybe I don’t want to be dyed?
Q. Why do black sheep eat less than white sheep?
A. There aren’t as many of them.
So, go out and walk barefoot on the grass. And roll in it. But, don’t eat the grass for heaven sake (dogs may have peed on it). And go for a walk. But try not to be a sheep and follow the same path as everyone else. Try walking off the beaten track. Take a risk. Take a gamble. Find a different route, a different road, you may just be pleasantly surprised.
Remember, people we are not sheep. We have choices. Sometimes we can follow, and sometimes we can lead. Sometimes we can go along with the crowd and sometimes we can march to the beat of our own drum and be a lone dissenting voice. Sometimes, we can snap at the heels of complacency and sometimes we wish to baa and bleat with the rest of them.
And, sometimes we want to be goats. We want to produce goat milk and use goat milk soap, drink goat milk and maybe even own a cute miniature baby goat. We want to jump on top of things (or people). Eek. We wish to nibble on weeds and graze here and there and not eat the same thing in the same manner as everyone else. We may not want fences to keep us in. We may wish to find a way, under, over, around, straight over the top or barrel right on through a fence. We may wish to break out to let others see they also can break out; that they don’t have to be like sheep led to the slaughter; that they can navigate in this world on a lone path and don’t always need to have others by your side.
Sometimes, it is good to be able to have others chase you and want to catch up with you.
Sometimes, allowing yourself to be caught can be fun.
Sometimes stubbornness and obstinacy are the only qualities that help us get through hard times and accomplish our goals.
If our hearts are listening out for the murmurings of the divine, we can hear just as good whatever traits of whatever animal we have.
If we choose — we can choose to be like a dinosaur or lion, or wolf or a cockroach (hell, those things can survive a nuclear war). We have an imagination. We have choices.
We are born with traits and characteristics that can be hard and difficult to change but we can choose to behave in different ways if we want. Because we are human. There are businesses and courses on how to change behavior. People make a living out of helping others change their thinking and behaviors. It is something as humans we do all the time (or try to do).
But, remember there are always anomalies. Outliers.
Some goats are positively docile and some sheep are total bastards. What if we are a mild cute goat and our family member is a bolshy, stupid, thick-headed, follow the crowd, run of the mill type of sheep?
Now, it is a bit hard to be thankful for that!
So be thankful for the personality you were born with. Work hard to change the aspects of yourself (or tone them down) you are not happy with, and accept that you may not like parts of your personality very much. But, have compassion for yourself.
We can’t all be sweet, docile, amenable, and following the crowd all the time.
Be proud when you stick your neck out for someone when no one else is speaking up. Be that person. Be that change maker.
Enjoy being who you are. Don’t get tied up in knots and fearful that God requires you to be a certain way, and have certain traits — if that is not you. Nobody is all just one way or another.
We all have a bit of sheep and a bit of goat in us.
There are benefits in all traits depending on circumstances and what needs to be done.
Okay?
So, just chill.
It all will be okay.
And eat. Go eat. Please. Nobody wants uncontrollable people running all over the place.
