Social institutions offer collective identity, a way to be “us.” We can take them as formative, rooted in submission, or as performative, a place to express our individuality. The THEORY of denominational structures like the #umc is that it’s the 1st; yet we yearn for the latter. Since the #UMC is a “we” structure many find themselves pushed to submit to a structure that includes that which they find repulsive. The “we” declares an aspect of identity & proposes communal action that the “I” cannot abide.