You're Not In My Tribe..

It is a tale as old as human history.  Civilizations rise and fall on this.  Your land cannot be your land and my land at the same time.  Countries conquer their neighbors.  It doesn't matter what name you which to attach to the invader: Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Inca, Sioux, British, Russians....that lands are taken from those not of my tribe is a part of history.  Sometimes those lands and kingdoms stay put for a while.  Sometimes they fall quickly.  Much of what determines that is the cohesiveness of those living in that land.  If they are internally cohesive, it will be hard to conquer them.  If they are at each other throats, they are ripe to be conquered.  I am afraid my country, the United States, is falling into the latter category.

Growing up, I was taught in school that the US was a melting pot of various cultures who were learning  to live side by side.  We can argue the extent of that, but the goal was for us to bring the richness of our various cultures and live in harmony.  Some groups suffered greatly as there contribution was not welcome.  Sometimes that rejected contribution is religious (Catholics go home, No Jews here) sometimes it is racial (Jim Crow Laws, slavery, Trail of Tears), and so forth.  The goal, though, was to find a way that each group could live in peace and be given opportunity.

An Experiment Failed ?
 
That attempt is seemingly long gone.  Now the country is breaking into tribes.  Yesterday, a young man walked into a church in Texas and killed 20+ people.  The internet erupted into a cacophony of accusation.  All of the accusations fit into one category: the shooter was a member of your tribe, not mine.  The shooter was accused of being a right-wing, religious zealot, Trump supporting, gun nut.  He was accused of being a left wing, antifa, atheist, liberal.  He was accused of being Muslim, Christian, and atheist.  In other words, we know nothing of his motivation, but it couldn't be because he belonged to my tribe.  Every tragedy...Las Vegas, New York City, and now Texas...is a reason to bolster the credibility of my tribe and to destroy the credibility of your tribe.

Whatever adjectives we can hold on this guy, whatever tribe he happened to belong to, will now become fodder for slapping labels on the entirety of the tribe.  It turns out the guy was atheist.  Does this mean every atheist is a potential church terrorist?  He was former military.  Does this make every former military, even those dishonorably discharged, potential killers?  I am sure the more we find out, the more the need to castigate whatever tribes this guy belonged to will only heighten.

Now, I know some atheist.  I don't think a one of them is hostile at all, let alone hostile enough to open fire in a church.  I know many former military.  Again, I  can't see most of them being a danger to anybody.  All A are not B.  I am not an atheist nor former military, by the society's standards, I am not part of their tribes.  I suppose I should be suspicious then, huh?  No.

Focus, Focus, Focus

I have heard that in real estate, the 3 most important factors, are location, location, location. I posit when it comes to living with each other in peace, the 3 most important factors are focus, focus, focus.Where our focus is will determine what we see and consequently how we act.  What we choose to focus on when we look at people not like me will determine how peaceably I live with others.

I will admit that there are some world views that are inherently divisive.  Racial Supremacy is a good example of this.  If I look at another and see as as lesser because of the amount of melanin (or lack thereof), then I am focusing on what separates.  I can name any human endeavor: religion, politics, culture, education, socioeconomic class, and a hundred other endeavors and see the same kind of supremacy at work.  Good heavens, we have people beating up others you belong to a tribe that roots for a different team than my tribe does.

However, if we are honest, there are more things that unite us than divide us.  Our base humanity is the same.  We all desire for happiness.  We all want love, even if we don't fully understand what that means.  We all want security and the ability to feel safe.  We all want the ability to succeed and flourish. When a person doesn't want this, we usually come to the conclusion that something is wrong.

The quickest way to single out a group for destruction is to rip away that similarity between us.  If I can strip away your humanity, consign you to the 'them', then I can justify any violence.  This is why the pro-abortion groups simply cannot recognize the humanity of the infant in the womb.  This is why slave owners must dehumanize those they wish to own.  This is why pornography deadens us to seeing the dignity of the person.  This is why racists need those of the other race to be lesser humans than they.  This is why religious persecutions need to consign those not of their faith as infidels or pagans unworthy of life.

Let's Be Honest

Those who choose hate will hijack any and all institutions to spread their hate.  Whether it is ISIS or Westboro Baptist Church or any variation of any other faith, religions are constantly hijacked to promote hate.  Those who hate will accuse other faiths of being exactly who they are.    How about politics?  My goodness, that has become a scorched earth free for all!  American politics is a toxic mix of loathing and fear.  We are constantly coached to view others as dangerous to my happiness.  Again, look at how quickly people wanted to assign affiliations to the gunman in Las Vegas or Texas.

What is the result?  Honestly, every time someone represents their tribe in such a way, they discredit the tribe.  They show their tribe to built on hate and fear.  Some of those tribes are built on hate and fear, but many are not.  For those who are not, their members who hate those not of their group wound the reputation of their group.

As  a Catholic priest, it drives me to the sadness when I see a fellow catholic employ such tactics.  Our particular faith sees the world as those in the Body of Christ and those called into the Body of Christ.  Nowhere does Christ tell us to do conversion at the tip of the sword.  Nowhere does Christ tell us persecute those who are not Christian.  In fact, it is damnably hard to convert anyone when I hate them and they know it!  Even the methodology of conversion, a call shown by our willingness to love those different than ourselves, was the calling card of the early Church.  Oftentimes, that willingness took on heroic levels.

As those who do not convert?  I am not to persecute them.  If they persecute me, I am to stand my ground and refuse to return violence for violence. I am to see what binds as one instead of looking for reasons to persecute.  I am well aware that many Catholics fall into this group.  We all stand before God in the end.  I will let God make the call there.  Since He has already told us what He expects (see Sermon of the Mount in Mathew or farewell Discourse in Gospel of John), we cannot say we were not warned. 

Our Choice

Regardless of the multitude of differences we might have, we have a fundamental choice.  We can either be forces to unite or divide.  We can either hijack whatever institution we want to further our hate, or we use those same institutions to unite.  I am a Catholic.  Would I like all to be Catholic?  Of course.   Do I have a right to persecute you or dismiss you is you should choose not to?  Absolutely not!  To do so would go against the very heart of what it means to be Catholic.

We can either appropriate false qualities to various differences (like someone being inherently inferior because of skin color) or we can be honest.  We can either work to a base common good that does allow for the various differences or we can wipe out those not of my tribe.  If we choose division, if we choose to persecute and destroy those not of my tribe, then what happened in las Vegas, of New York, or Texas, of Nice, or Paris, or London, or Bagdad, or Nigeria, or... will continue on.  I am willing to bet this: the shooter in Texas did view those he went to kill as not belonging to his tribe and hence disposable.  We can either learn the lessons of the hell tribalism wrought, or  we can careen further down the road to hell.

That is up to us.