“Obedience culture,” in distilled, simplified form, values conformity over competence, unflinching faith over critical thinking, and institutional loyalty over human dignity. Using principles from the field of complexity science, this paper argues that obedience culture fosters approaches increasingly prone to failure in complex, challenging, dynamic situations. It examines the ascendancy of obedience culture among certain U.S. religious communities, including that of Mormonism, as well as explores recent and forcible extensions of obedience culture into our national and international policy arenas such as the so-called Patriot Act and the U.S. invasion and subsequent situational management of Iraq.

GLENN CORNET, TODD COMPTON