Us or Them: What’s in a Name?

April 1, 2022 Volume 7: Issue 1

Whether “Us” equals Conservatives and “Them” equals Liberals or the other way around, people have a tendency to view others within those parameters. I’m not debating whether those labels are good or bad, right or wrong, it’s just what we do. Why? Because we like to belong – the Birds of a Feather syndrome; and, those not part of our “Tribe” automatically become classified as “Them” i.e. outside our comfort zone. And that’s okay because it helps us define reality. Truth be known there really is “Us” and “Them”. We know it. They know it. Rarely do the two mix. Not politically, spiritually or morally. When they do mix, it’s usually because the one seeking to mix is unsure of their own identity and thus are in-between. Fence-sitters if you will. A dangerous situation both for the mixer and those with whom he’s trying to mix.

For example, instead of Conservative or Liberal use Good and Evil or Light and Darkness:

Why is it dangerous to mix? Because Scripture tells us “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” ~James 1:8. We are also told by Jesus that when the blind lead the blind they will both fall in the ditch ~Matthew 15:14 and are admonished to leave them alone. That admonishment is further emphasized earlier in the Parable of the Tares ~Matthew 13:24-43. Interestingly enough, we are not told to root them out, quite to the contrary we are told to leave them alone and God would separate them out at the proper time. However, misguided as we tend to be, we don’t heed that admonition. Instead we try to reason with them. We try to get them to see (they can’t, they’re blind). We seek to expose them with the intent of weeding them out – no pun intended. Whether we are misguided by compassion or fear is irrelevant – we’re misguided. We should learn to be content in who and what we are rather than hell-bent on changing someone else. That kind of change, opening the eyes of the blind or rooting out Tares belongs to God. It is God who gives the ability to become single-minded – “If your eye is single and your whole body will be filled with light but if your eye is evil the body will be full of darkness” ~Matthew 6:22-23. Here the contrast is not so much “Us” and “Them” but Light and Darkness. That Scripture goes on to say that “if the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness”. Meaning that if your perceived “light” is really a form of darkness then the darkness will be pitch black. This isn’t just good vs evil. It’s a perception of being or doing good but the root is really evil.

A double-minded person sees himself to be in the light. A blind person perceives himself as being able to see. A Tare looks like wheat. But perception is too often distorted or colored by the individual’s ideals or fears, hopes or failures, past experiences or present expectations. It’s not reality; and, if your perception is not reality, that’s damn scary because how do you know? It’s simple: Is your eye single or are you double-minded? The answer to that requires a depth of personal integrity that many either do not possess or refuse to tap. That’s why the Psalmist asked God to search his heart, to try him to see if there was wickedness in him (Psalm 139:23) because he knew and acknowledged a spiritual truth: that “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” ~Jeremiah 17:9.

The Evangelist Billy Sunday drew the word-picture between Christianity and Communism. In one of his street meetings, a Communist in the crowd pointed out that Communism was capable of putting a new suit on a beggar. Billy Sunday stated that the problem still remained: he was still a beggar. On the other hand, he said, Christianity could put a new man in that suit. Change what is outside and remain the same or change the inside and become new.

We live in an era where many, many people claim to be Christians but do not have the fruit to prove it. Instead they display a double-mindedness, a contamination from the World that gives lie to their words. In other words they talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Sunday Christians.

I am reminded of a story about Alexander the Great. A soldier was brought before him accused of cowardice. Alexander asked the soldier his name, the soldier quaked in fear but remained strangely silent. Again Alexander demanded to know his name. In fear and trembling the soldier answered: “It’s Alexander, Sir”. To which Alexander the Great replied: “Soldier, SOLDIER … change your conduct or change your name!”

Christian .. CHRISTIAN …!

TAErnst, 01.28.2022