Some Thoughts Regarding “Identity” by John McLaughlin

The theme discussed at the March meeting of Interfaith Grand River was “identity - how our faith identities interact with our other identities, how we label ourselves, and how that impacts our daily lives and our relationships with our neighbours”. This topic has become an especially important and controversial subject of public discourse in recent years.

The nature and sources of human identity

 The psychological development of every individual includes a yearning for self-definition and self-understanding, developing a conception of who we are, the purpose of our life, and how we should live. This effort to define our self and our place in the social order is a search for meaning and a sense of belonging. It is a quest informed by ever-evolving and interacting narratives of identity.

The sources of identity are diverse. At times we may identify ourselves by our family, ethnicity, nationality, religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, class, culture, or profession. At other times, where we live or work, our loyalty to sports teams, the type of music we enjoy, or the particular causes we support contribute to our sense of identity. In short, our identities are “inescapably plural.” And to make things even more complex, rather than simply being a sum of these identities, we prioritize which identities matter most to us under different circumstances or at one time or another.

It must be noted that these identities we typically assign to ourselves, the ones mentioned above, are derived from the accidents of birth or other circumstances or choices, and are therefore by nature “contingent”, not “essential”. A contingent identity is one which could have easily developed otherwise under different circumstances, e.g. if I was an only child I could never have the identity of “a brother”; or, if I was born, grew up and lived in Belgium, I would identify as a Belgian, not as a Canadian. And what of “essential identity? More about that further on, but briefly, an essential identity would exist regardless of where and when we were born, our personal interests or predispositions, or what choices we made.  

Identities as sources of uniqueness, community and conflict

Much of the public discourse on identity emphasizes how forging an individual identity helps us to define our own uniqueness. This focus reflects our preoccupation with individuality, how we differ from others. However, equally important is that each element of identity also unites us with others who share that identity, linking us with larger narratives that provide context and structure for our lives. Thus, we often speak of being a member of this or that “community”. We will often extend to other community members loyalty, support, and friendship that we may withhold from those who are not members of that community. In this sense, we may describe these identities as “bounded”, that is, although they unite us with others who share that identity, they necessarily exclude those who don’t, often creating a sense of “us” versus “them”. And, as we all know far too well, “us” versus “them” dynamics can be the cause of conflict and destructiveness. In fact, much of the conflict we experience in the world today is related to clashes of bounded identities, often those based on political or religious affiliation.

The “crisis of identity”

The tensions, conflicts and social disruptions that have developed in recent years, in particular in the political field, are largely the result of increasingly polarized bounded identities. This necessarily raises the question of how humanity can go forward in an interdependent and rapidly contracting world if these bounded identities, by nature, tend towards conflict. Anyone even minimally following the news knows that the world is in crisis as people holding ever more polarized identities clash. This situation was addressed in a 2019 message from the Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’ís of the world, “Humanity is gripped by a crisis of identity, as various peoples and groups struggle to define themselves, their place in the world, and how they should act. Without a vision of shared identity and common purpose, they fall into competing ideologies and power struggles. Seemingly countless permutations of “us” and “them” define group identities ever more narrowly and in contrast to one another. Over time, this splintering into divergent interest groups has weakened the cohesion of society itself. Rival conceptions about the primacy of a particular people are peddled to the exclusion of the truth that humanity is on a common journey in which all are protagonists [emphasis added].”

Our essential identity

If contingent, bounded identities are inherently limited in their ability to create unity and are in fact prone to creating conflict, is there an essential (non-contingent) identity that we can discover that provides a foundation for cooperation, peace and unity? The message from the Universal House of Justice continues, “Consider how radically different such a fragmented conception of human identity is from the one that follows from a recognition of the oneness of humanity [emphasis added].” Our most fundamental non-contingent identity, the one that all people share, is expressed in the concept of the “oneness of humanity”.  The root of this concept and consciousness can be found in the first book of the Torah, where in Genesis 1:27 we read, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them". This means that each of us has the potential to develop and express in our actions (like reflecting an image in a mirror) attributes of God such as creativity, love, compassion, mercy, justice, and many others. This generates and defines an essential and inclusive identity. We are all members of the human family (a truth supported by the Human Genome Project) and therefore share this spiritual heritage, potential and identity. In addition to this spiritual pillar of our common identity, we can empirically observe among all peoples expressions of our distinctive human commonality in the form of common yearnings, vulnerabilities, and experiences.

Is this “oneness” identity another name for homogenization?

Does the identity expressed in the oneness of humanity extinguish diversity? Where does diversity fit into this perspective? The message of the Universal House of Justice addresses this concern, “In this perspective [i.e. recognition of the oneness of humanity], the diversity that characterizes the human family, far from contradicting its oneness, endows it with richness. Unity, in its Bahá’í expression, contains the essential concept of diversity, distinguishing it from uniformity. It is through love for all people, and by subordinating lesser loyalties to the best interests of humankind, that the unity of the world can be realized and the infinite expressions of human diversity find their highest fulfilment.” So, from this perspective, the oneness of humanity does not reject lesser identities but it does offer us a touchstone by which to recognize and reject identities which are fundamentally incompatible with our essential identity, such as identities based on hatred of others. Infused with love for all people, consciousness of the oneness of humanity helps us to prioritize lesser identities, and to protect them as expressions of the rich diversity with which humanity is endowed. This oneness is “unity in diversity”, not uniformity or homogenization.

Our faith identities and the oneness of humanity

According to this analysis, even our faith identities are contingent and bounded and it is clearly evident that faith identities can be virulent sources of conflict in the world. However, if we penetrate to the essence of faith, beyond the incidentals of dogma, dress, food, ritual and practices, we can discover a faith identity we can all share, demonstrate and promulgate. This faith identity, which I believe we participants in Interfaith Grand River share, is described by `Abdu’l-Bahá in this statement, “...if a soul is endowed with the attributes of true faith and characterized with spiritual qualities he will become to all mankind an emblem of the outstretched mercies of God. For the attributes of the people of faith are justice and fair-mindedness; forbearance and compassion and generosity; consideration for others; candour, trustworthiness, and loyalty; love and loving-kindness; devotion and determination and humanity."

For a more comprehensive exploration of the themes addressed in this article, I have provided the following links:  

Shahrzad Sabet (2023), “The Crisis of Identity” https://bahaiworld.bahai.org/library/the-crisis-of-identity/

Matthew Weinberg (2006), “Identity and the Search for a Common Human Purpose” https://bahaiworld.bahai.org/library/category/oneness-justice/