Legitimacy and Christians

Oh, won't you sign up your name

We'd like to feel you're acceptable, respectable

Oh, presentable

A vegetable

--Supertramp

Legitimacy can be defined as social acceptance, recognition, and status bestowed on those who conform with social norms. Institutional theory is grounded in the proposition that desire for legitimacy causes widespread compliance with rules and customs, leading to a general isomorphism, or sameness, of behavior.

A factor that may moderate this relationship in a community is the strength of Christian belief among its members. A clear message of the bible is that walking the path of Christ and acting in His name requires nonconformity. Rules must be broken, fires must be started, and persecution--which could be defined as negative consequences of not complying with social norms--is likely.

Formally stated, the proposition is this: The greater the Christian belief among members of a community, the lower the preference for legitimacy from society-at-large. 

Christians strive to conform to the will of God more so than 'the will of the people.'

Because, as Christians see it, the only legitimacy that matters is conferred by God.