According to some people, there are only two sets of groups to hang out with: the flock or the wild goats. The flock is always Good and the wild goats are forever Bad. There is no grey area here.
But what if the flock are just goats in sheep’s clothing? Better yet, what if the goats are really just very dirty sheep — grey, dirty sheep? All of a sudden we find a huge grey hectare of an area.
It takes a very rare person to always be a sheep or forever exist as a wild goat — according to general Judeo-Christian theology, there are just two — or three — of these animals. It is obnoxiously hard to be just one thing all of the time. It is just plain obnoxious to claim to be so.
To pull this out of the metaphorical, myself and many of my friends have been shuffled over to the wild goat herd. I cannot speak for others, but I, though offended at first, am now glad of the demarcation that I have been given. In my life experience, I have known sheep to say horrid things about other sheep, been the recipient of spitballs from other sheep — in church! –, and have read the tales of sheep pots calling sheep kettles black. If they are part of the fold, then Lord, give me my sinful wild goats!
If I had to choose between their definition of the flock or their take on the wild goat, I am so very, very glad to pronounce myself a wild goat. At least the other wild goats I know do not try to hide themselves under a sheep’s pristine wool coat.