Who are we?

An old friend of mine has gone through some rough times over the last few years.  During that time he found religion.  Shortly after that he became more patriotic and conservative, and started announcing his newly found political beliefs without any evidence of reconciling the differences between his earlier, more liberal, philosophies.  He simply abandoned them, along with many of the things that made him the person he was at that time.

Someone else’s values are their own business, but I always question the motives behind such an extreme change in anyone.  This is especially true when a person ties up so much of themselves, so much of their identity, into a particular set of ideologies.  And it makes me wonder just how much of what we are can be labeled or defined by the things outside of ourselves that we fervently believe in, or cling to.

Are we who…