Every community, no matter the size, faces struggles when it comes to coming together as well as consistency. It is within human nature to be deviant at times, or go against what may have been said to lead us. However, it is also human nature to want order and flow. Within these past few readings, we have learned that there are many difficulties when it comes to trying to create an environment or community that has rules, and people who will follow these rules. Communities can uplift people and inspire hope and growth, but also can place boundaries that restrict attitudes or actions.
Within the first prophetic text we read about the Hebrew Prophets, it is clear that rules were put in place to restrict first, which will then lead to order and peace second. These boundaries were put in place to create a community of love and commonality, but create complexities when there are harsh punishments for stepping out of line in even the smallest ways. What has become clear to me within several readings of religion is that rules are more important than individuality, which I have witness within my experience growing up in the Catholic Church, as well as my experience within other communities, not just within religion.
Despite these rules, community also allows people to find solace in one another. People will gravitate to those who share common thoughts or feelings, so communities create a place of peace and union for many people. It has been through many communities that people have been able to rise up and break traditional boundaries set upon them, which contradicts earlier notions of assimilation within communities. They allow us to come together and support one another, which the Book of Ruth exhibits, “And the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the lord who has not withheld a redeemer from you today… for he is born of your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons,” (Ruth 4.13-4.22). Ruth loved the community she created with her mother-in-law, and showed a prime example of what it means to come together in times of need, which community does to greatly.
Alyse Covington 