Tribalism, Christian Nationalism, and YOU

Some of tribes are natural, neutral and even positive opportunities for community and mission. But other times our tribal loyalties can become dangerous and deadly to our souls.

In early November 2021, news broke that you might not have noticed, but it stirred up a lot of feelings for me. San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey unexpectedly announced his retirement. He had just played a resurgent season in which he was once again the best player at his position. He had been the heart and soul of the San Francisco Giants baseball team, as he had during the golden era of championships in five years from 2010 to 2014. But Buster was hanging up his golden spikes. He was leaving his salary of $22 million dollars in the Giants corporate account. His reasoning: he wanted to enjoy his family, his 10-year-old twins and his newly adopted baby daughters. Again, this announcement might have barely blipped your radar. But for a certain group or tribe of people, it mattered. After it happened, I gobbled up every article and YouTube clip I could find, because I’m a part of that tribe—the “Giants fan” tribe.

What is Tribalism?

Tribalism is a primal form of human association. We usually think of a tribe as a primitive group of people from either long ago or far away. In the Old Testament we talk about the different groups of people who comprise the nation or kingdom of Israel as the “tribes” of Israel, Judah, Ephraim, and so on.

But more recently the word tribe has also been used to describe other types of groups, groups of “persons having a common character, occupation, or interest” (as Webster’s says). A group of persons with a common interest in pulling for the Giants is type of tribe.

Our culture has become a tribal culture. People increasingly define themselves by membership in groups that identify in any number of ways. These affiliations could be an affinity or common interest, like Giants fans or book clubs. Many modern tribes are political, Republicans or Democrats. Some of these tribes are informal, loosely held, and basically innocuous. Some are positive opportunities for community and mission. But at time these tribes form dangerous, even cult- or religious-like significance to the people who are part of them.

Two Tribes and One Kingdom

We see something like this tribalism at work in the story of Jesus as retold by John. Specifically, John tells us about the trial of Jesus, as the Jewish leaders marshal the power of the state to accomplish their goals. They drag Jesus from the Jewish, religious court to the Roman, civil court: “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters” (John 18:28). The Roman governor, Pilate, wiping sleep from his eyes as he walks from his quarters, yawns and asks, “What charge do you bring against this man?” (John 18:29). Pilate protests that this is a religious dispute, but the Jewish leaders demand Roman intervention. So Pilate takes Jesus and questions him.

Here we see two tribal interests, Jewish and Roman, acting in their self-interest. Pastor and scholar Mickey Klink says the trial scene “depicts two worldly authorities fighting over a claim to power that ultimately belongs to neither.” The Jewish leaders are interested in ritual purity and holding onto an illegitimate child of political power and religious power married to one another. Pilate the representative of the empire, Rome, is interested in maintaining the civil order and peace (the pax Romana) in his region, aiming to avoid entanglement in local political or religious disputes. Pilate sees everything through a tribal lens. He explains to Jesus that Jesus’s own nation or people have betrayed him, “Your own nation handed you over to me” (John 18:35). Pilate sees everything on a horizontal line of human interest groups: nations and people. Pilate defines things according to national or tribal categories. This is, literally, only natural. We all tend toward Pilate-ism: we see things horizontally, left-right, liberal-conervative, family and not-family. This horizontal plane isn’t bad or unnatural. No, it’s a created reality (though corrupted by the fall into sin). It’s most natural.

The problem, though, is that Jesus doesn’t operate merely or mainly on the horizontal plane of human interests, tribes and nations. Jesus’s priorities, purposes and interests differ from both the religious and statist establishment. Big time. Jesus isn’t interested in tribal loyalties. Jesus prioritizes establishing a kingdom that is foreign to this world as he witnesses to the truth. Whereas Pilate questions Jesus about “your own nation” (John 18:35), Jesus answers not about a nation or tribe, but about a kingdom, “My own kingdom,” he says, “is not of this world” (John 18:36).

Here Pilate’s interest and context diverges from Jesus’s purpose. The priorities of any earthly tribal interest will always diverge from Jesus’s eventually. Because Jesus has a vertical perspective. Christ defines things according to a kingdom not a nation. His kingdom is not of the world. Its authority, source, and power come from another realm. When Peter defends Jesus with the power of the world—a sword—Jesus rebukes him: “Put your sword away!” (John 18:11).

Christian Nationalism and Racism

This connects with some online brouhaha recently from a small but loud tribe that calls itself “Christian Nationalism.” One influential book defines “Christian Nationalism” as “a totality of national action, consisting of civil laws and social customs, conducted by a Christian nation as a Christian nation, in order to procure for itself both earthly and heavenly good in Christ.” Now, I have some thoughts about Christian Nationalism, whether it’s biblical—or even practically possible. But that’s not the point here. The point here is that the Christian Nationalist tribe started saying some really nasty stuff online recently. I’ll let my friend Luke Stamps, a theology professor at Oklahoma Baptist University, summarize it:

A group of posters associated with the Christian Nationalist right were on [Twitter] feigning ignorance of and then questioning the “narrative” about the lynching of Emmett Till. Apparently, we can’t acknowledge one of the most well-documented cases of racist terrorism in American history simply because it is a part of the “official narrative” of “the left.” The brutal disfigurement, mutilation, and murder of a 14-year-old boy, which was racially motivated by his murderers’ own admission, may have not been “wholly unprovoked, or as thoroughly driven by racism as is claimed.”

In other words, a vocal group of leading voices from the “Christian Nationalist” tribe is now openly questioning whether racism is real—and even if racism is bad. Because “opposing racism” is seen as a “leftist” or “liberal” talking point, the ultra-right-wing, conservative Christian Nationalist tribe opposes “opposing racism.” In my own interactions with one influential Christian Nationalist leader, I asked if he would acknowledge that racism is real and racism is evil. That answer? “Hahaha I’m not going to dance to your silly tune.” When I explained that racist beliefs and actions are evil and destructive, drawing comparison to LGBT+ beliefs and actions, it was called, “a horrific false moral equivalence.”

Such responses are Exhibit A of what happens when someone puts tribal loyalty above biblical, Christian truth. Such is the danger of putting everything on the horizontal spectrum of left-right, liberal-conservative. Instead, we should live in the multi-dimensional reality of Jesus’s kingdom, which is both side-to-side (people and people) and up-and-down (God and people). If you’re so afraid of being “liberal” that you can’t denounce racism, then you’re captive to a truly toxic tribalism. This Christian Nationalist response is the mindset of Pilate and the Jewish leaders. It defines the world accordingly to a narrow, tribal loyalty rather than a Christian one.

Our Own Dangerous Tribalisms

Now, as toxic as the Christian Nationalist stuff is showing itself to be, that’s not even the real point. Maybe you’re drawn to Christian Nationalism or a Poisonous Partisanship. But more likely, you’re defining yourself by other tribal identities and loyalties. Just, ahem, hypothetically, some of these could be, “smart people,” “educated people,” “Giants fans,” “baseball card collectors,” “car guys,” and on and on. You get the idea.

Are your interests more like the Jewish leaders, more like Pilate, or more like Jesus? Do you pledge primary and fundamental allegiance to a kingdom that is not of this world, or to some other tribe? Do you let the priorities of Jesus redefine your own? Is your tribe or God’s Kingdom your primary influence? Are you willing to walk away from the tribal stuff if it conflicts with your true Christian purpose and priorities?

Buster Posey did something similar to that.

He looked at his career, his chances for the Hall of Fame, and tens of millions of dollars and he said that his ultimate allegiance was somewhere else. In the words of Buster’s former teammate, Barry Zito.

Dear Buster Posey,

You are a rare bird.

You have what most of us MLB players never did, true perspective. You didn’t bow down and worship the game of baseball as if it were your God. In the eyes of Giants fans, you walked on water but to you, it was just a game you loved to play and that’s why you played it so well.

Perspective.

You cared about the game but didn’t let it define you the way we all did. Whether you were winning one of your 3 World Series titles or in the middle of a career-worst slump you were the same Buster, focused, friendly, and always professional.

You were 60 feet from me in my greatest and worst moments in baseball. Your levelheaded approach to the game inspired me and every other player that set foot in those Giants locker rooms through the years.

I bet you had no idea.

Now, you are doing what every MLB player wishes he could have done but never got to, tell the game when you’ve had enough and walk away on top.

Most of us were far too attached to the game and held onto it for dear life (terrified of the gaping hole that baseball would one day leave in our hearts when it told us we weren’t good enough to play it anymore).

I have a feeling you won’t have this problem. Your heart is full of something bigger; the Lord above and your beautiful family. You are the same guy today as you were on May 29, 2010 when we all got to witness the spectacle that would lead our clubhouse, the Giants organization, and the entire Bay Area to 3 World Championships.

You know what my favorite part is about you? After winning every award possible in the game, your ego is no bigger, and your self worth no greater. Who can say that? You can Buster.

Perspective.

Is yours purely flat and side-to-side? Or do you look up? Do you live in the multi-dimensional life that God offers?

May the Lord give us grace to announce an early retirement from our own toxic tribalisms.