Threat Of Tribalism

When Jesus had driven out a demon, some of the crowd said: "By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons." Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.  But he knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. 

Today’s Gospel reading from Luke reminds me of last Sunday’s Cape Cod Times Ideas and Opinion section with a piece written by Thomas Friedman: “Greatest threat to US is erupting from within.”   He stated: “I began my journalism career covering a civil war in Lebanon.  I never thought I would end my career covering a civil war in America.  We may not be there yet, but if we don’t turn around now, we will surely get to where we are going which was best described by Senator Jeff Flake on Monday: ‘Tribalism is ruining us.  It is tearing our country apart.  It is no way for sane adults to act.’ 

…When I look around at all the people who are propelling their political careers and fattening their wallets by dividing us, I cannot but wonder: Do these people go home at night to some offshore island where none of this matters?  Do these people really think their kids aren’t going to pay for the venom they sell and spread?  Don’t worry, I know the answer: They aren’t thinking and they aren’t going to stop it.

What stops it? When a majority of Americans who are still center-left and center-right come together and vote only for lawmakers who have the courage to demand a stop to it – right now, not just when they are leaving office.”

I suspect most of us can agree with Friedman.   The demons that propagate hate and division must be driven out.  We are now a “kingdom divided against itself.”  Where are the sane adults?   The big, bad wolves never stop trying to blow our houses down.   Very unfortunately we keep making our houses out of straw and sticks.

As Friedman stated, “We have moved away from partisanship which still allowed for political compromises in the end, to ‘tribalism’…In a tribal world it is rule or die, compromise is a sin, enemies must be crushed, and power must be held at all costs…”    How anti-Jesus is that!?

Deacon David Pierce