Identifying the Individual

There are multiple ways to identify an individual and by no means am I suggesting that what I say is the only way to identify individuals’ standpoints and what sect they may partake in. Taking what McGuire lays out in the graphs in chapter 5, it is easily applicable to the individual person. There have been two events this past week where I was able to identify the standpoint of individuals with language alone and using both language and the graph. This first event occurred in class on Tuesday (22-01-97) when we watched the film Seperate Realities. Professor Spickard did give a brief overview of the film and did talk about the individuals in the documentary but I was not able to catch what sect the second person was. When the film started documenting Glen’s reality (the second person), I was trying to identify what sect Glen was. During this time I was listening for keywords and phrases that would help me identify Glen’s stance and sect. It wasn’t until Glen started repeating the words “saved” and “unsaved” that I started to give educated guesses on what sect he is. My initial guess was Baptist only because of the way the term “saved” was used and how he states that “Jesus the savior” changed his life and that “it is a duty” to go and proclaim the teachings of the lord. The second event occurred yesterday where my friend and I discussed other religions. I know that he is a devoted Catholic but I wanted to know where he stood individually so I asked if he believed in the legitimacy of other religions. He replied that he believes there is some legitimacy in other religions. This answer (and from the years I’ve known him) gave me the impression that he is somewhere between denominational, sectarian, and cultic. I am going to ask my friend more questions to see where he truly is but my best-educated guess would put him in denominational but heading towards sectarian.