Trying to Think Biblically About Tribalism, Prejudice, and Discrimination
As with most theories, different people have different evaluations, positive, negative, and in between about the value of Critical Race Theory (CRT).
In my discussions of American racism, prejudice, discrimination, and the place of Critical Race Theory within the Christian church, I will not take the
time to define or explain CRT itself. Many others have already done that work, so I will simply refer my readers to a few brief introductions.
I urge you to read these additional discussions in order to understand where we are going. (For informative and reasonably positive reviews, see here and here. For critical to middling reviews, see here and here. What I happen to think will unfold as we proceed.)
I begin with two important Christian theological positions: the biblical teachings about (1) how all human beings are created as the Image of God (all good theology begins with Genesis 1 & 2, not Genesis 3), and (2) all human beings are fallen creatures, corrupted by sin (the doctrines of original sin and total depravity).
So, all people are BOTH divine image bearers as well as corrupted image bearers who carry the twisted consequences of sin within us, which causes
us to commit specific sinful acts.
As a result of our sinfulness, all human beings have a natural (or, from God’s perspective, an Un-natural, post-Fall) inclination towards Tribalism.
Human selfishness, greed, fear, and possessiveness move all people, and the society’s that we create, in the direction of tribalism. We are suspicious, even fearful, of outsiders, The Other. We are protective of our own, most protective of those who are “our own” and of the things we know best.
Our Own are those who are most like us.
The Other, the stranger, aliens, an outsiders are those unlike us; or, at least, they are unfamiliar.
Fallen human nature tells us to be skeptical, fearful, and protective against 
unfamiliar Outsider. Since they are different from us, we are skeptical as to what we can expect of them. We may even be fearful because in facing the Outsider we face the Unknown.
Again, our sinfulness pushes this fearful distinction between Us vs. Them into the creation of imaginary qualitative distinctions.
Our group is smarter, better, kinder, more civilized. We can place every racist, prejudiced caricature about those who are unlike us and our tribe into this category.
The outsider is regularly measured in qualitative terms as dangerous, irrational, ignorant, criminal, and uncivilized. The Other can even be seen as subhuman.
All of these features of human tribalism have been universally prevalent throughout human history.
It was not uncommon for Native American tribes to identify their own people as “the True Human beings,” or “the Real People.” Meaning, of
course, that the members of other tribes, which were often enemies to be feared and killed, were not as human as they, the Real Human Beings, were.
When I visited my daughter in Kenya, I was fascinated by the latent hostility that the members of different tribes held for one another. I was told by a number of the Kenyans I met such things as, all Kikuyu were dishonest; all Luo were lazy; and all Masai were violent.
It did not matter that all these people shared the same skin color. It was the tribe that made the difference, allowing for automatic generalizations, prejudice, and discrimination.
Throughout the course of history, in different times and places, human tribalism has appeared in a wide variety of different guises. Tribalism can wear a multitude of different masks, but it is always the same sinful problem.
Tribalism expresses itself through religion (Protestant vs. Catholic), race
(white vs. black, though to call this “racism” is a misnomer that I will return to later), nationalism (Spaniards
vs. Catalonians), and political partisanship (Republicans vs. Democrats). The list goes on and on.
Human beings are terribly creative in finding ways to draw boundaries around themselves, separating their own people (who are typically good) from “the other” people (who are typically bad).
With the coming of the Kingdom of God in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, our Father in heaven has been working towards the goal of eliminating the blight of tribalism that have has ripped and shredded humanity since the Fall in Genesis 3.
As soon as Adam pointed his finger at Eve and said to God, “It wasn’t my idea. SHE made me do it!” the problem of divisiveness has been working to sabotage God’s original desire for all-inclusive, human community.
Here is where I believe we must begin a Christian analysis of the problems at hand.
We will eventually talk about the sins of racism, discrimination, and prejudice. But in order to have an adequate Biblical foundation for grappling with the complexities of those issues, we need to understand that they are merely different dimensions, or expressions, of a single problem: human tribalism.
We must also remember that we all are guilty of tribalism in one way or
another, to one degree or another, because we are all fallen, sinful images of God.
We ALL share the same basic tendencies, which is why remembering the ethical instruction that Jesus left to us in the four New Testament Gospels is essential for us all.
Combating our own, as well as our society’s, expressions of tribalism is a non-negotiable responsibility of everyone who claims to follow Jesus Christ.
Remember, when Jesus told his listeners to love their neighbor as themselves, the Pharisees in the crowd asked him, “Ok, but who exactly is my neighbor?”
They were searching for some tribal distinctions that would allow them to love those who were like themselves, while ignoring Outsiders.
Of course, Jesus perceived the not-so-hidden motive behind their question. By answering them with the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus makes it clear that all tribalistic distinctions violate God’s intentions.
The Jew in the ditch and the Samaritan who stops to help were from two very different tribes of people that openly despised each other. Except that this particular Samaritan was an exception.
The “despised” Samaritan acted according to God’s intentions for all people — that loving neighborliness knows no bounds.
Members of the kingdom of God understand that there are no insiders or outsiders within the human family. All people qualify equally as worthy of our care and concern.,
Jesus tells us all to repent of our tribalism, no matter what it may look like; to renounce it as sin in our lives; to ask the Spirit for illumination that we may recognize the blindness created by own our tribalistic instincts.
And then to commit ourselves to change, to ACT in whatever specific ways are necessary for us become different people, living as citizens of God’s kingdom on earth.
I will have more to say about this practical application in the days ahead.
(Also, if you disagree or have different thoughts on this issue, send me a note and let me know that you think. Thanks for reading.)
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