Eldership; A Specific Unintended Consequence

I first became aware that something was wrong in my second year of Seminary. We were given a battery of tests for Personality, Emotional and Mental Stability. Yes, I passed, but there was something unusual in my personality test. One of the elements studied was that of trust. Dr. King called me in to discuss the results and he stated his concern about my trust level. He actually said, "Trust is good, but you are so far above the scaled that I can only say that you are gullible." This actually upset me quite a bit. I was trained in the sciences (Zoology major -- a lot of Biochemistry). I had served as a Naval Officer -- most of it in Engineering. I was a "facts" person. I couldn't believe that Professor King said that I was gullible. I coped by deciding that the test was wrong.

The next year I had opportunity to gain a qualification allowing me to purchase and administer the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis (TJTA). This is a test of one's personality in seven different areas. It actually tests how you feel about yourself at the time of taking the test. It can and does change over time (not daily, but over months). I was interested in the test because it is useful in identifying areas needing help in Premarital counseling. One of the seven areas is called the Dominant/Submissive scale. A person is plotted on a percentile scale running from 1 (totally submissive) to 99 (totally dominant). The authors of the test have found that this scale really demonstrates the self-esteem of the person taking the test. I have given the test well over a hundred times. I have had people score all over the place. However, when I gave the test to people in the Ministering Community -- in the early 80's (including myself), the scores were extremely low. Certainly most were in the lower 25 percentile, many well below. The authors state that real health was shown in those well above the 50th percentile. Wow, were all of us in community of such a low opinion of ourselves?

After much thought, I don't think that these low scores had anything to do with our self-esteem. It had to do with how we understood the questions in this area of the test. For example (this is not an actual question -- but they were like this), there were two statements and the taker of the test must choose which one fits his/her personality:

• In most situations I prefer to make the decisions
• In most situations I prefer to follow another's direction

We were "programmed" to submit rather than take charge. This caused us to see the best alternative always to be in the submissive place. Of course this is not what the test was looking for. We always looked like we had poor self-esteem. But the real issue was our valuing the submissive position rather than the dominant position.

All of this could be purely academic except for the fact that all of us are required in life situations to take charge at some time. We really can't go through life in a purely submissive position. Of course many people in the world live just that way, but we usually call their position oppressive. Were we oppressed. I don't think so. But, our view of how life was to be lived seemed to have been skewed because our teaching in this area. By the way, I didn't really mention it, but the issue of my "gullibility" was very similar to the TJTA results.