The Inner Ring

I think that Lewis does a very good job in explaining a phenomenon that I haven't thought much about. People tend to form small groups of friends that are not official, but clearly have insiders and outsiders. People get satisfaction from being part of an exclusive inner ring while others stand outside. Outsiders long to be part of an inner ring. Inner rings may include groups of friends who share a common interest, play a certain sport, go to a certain school, work at a certain company, or share any other part of life together. They tend to hold a limited amount of members and often take pleasure in making fun of people on the outside. These inner rings occur all over the place, often without people even knowing they exist.

One problem with inner rings is that people often try too hard to get into them. People often are willing to make sacrifices, compromise their personality, and do foolish things to be accepted into an inner ring. Some people try to be accepted by buying clothes, cars, or other things that they think will make people like them. Many times people will try to alter their behavior to be more socially acceptable to the group. This can involve the way people talk to each other, the activities they do, or the attitudes they show when doing certain things. Sometimes people will smoke or drink alcohol because the group they want to get into does these things. Lewis says that most people will at some point "be a scoundrel" to be accepted into a certain group.

Another problem with inner rings is that those on the inside tend to get pleasure from keeping other people on the outside. If everyone were allowed into an inner ring, the inner ring would have lost its purpose. This can cause insiders to do some very cruel things to outsiders. They can get lots of personal satisfaction by taking advantage of the outsiders' desire to get in. This is not the way that Christians should treat each other. As Christians, we should not exclude other people from joining our groups, but instead accept people even if we don't particularly like them.