Losing “Us” versus “Them”

Here we are again…fully into another election year cycle. 

Tensions rise on both the right and the left as many have once again allowed seemingly endless issues to polarize us, seeking to insulate masses into their own echo chambers. There is lots of talking, but little effort to listen or understand. There is no shortage of name-calling and motive assuming as the distance between people who are adored by God once again widens. 

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. 

“How long, O Lord” until we stop replaying this broken soundtrack in favor of something resembling the Good News you’ve made gloriously accessible? 

Perhaps right now you’re thinking, “But you don’t understand how dangerous the actions/theology/mindset of this other person or group is.” 

I think the far more important question is if we will remember how powerful, capable, and glorious our Savior is! 

We do not establish the Kingdom of Heaven by employing the strategies of hell. My dear friend Caleb Hyers has said it well: “You can be very wrong in the way that you are right.” Here are 4 dangers of “us versus them” thinking, calling us higher to the way of Jesus in how we seek the restoration of all things! 

Danger 1: When we see the world as “us versus them,” we always seem to cast ourselves as the “good guys.”

In much of the rhetoric of our offense-laden culture, there is a nearly automatic reaction to treat one’s own “side” — whether it is social, religious, idealogical, or political — as the faultless do-gooders, while passionately (and often quire childishly) vilifying those who view the world through a different lens. Here’s the problem. The Bible says that there are “none” who are good, except God alone (Mk. 10:18, Rom. 3:10). All of humanity is in need of rescue, and we’d be wise to remember that it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance, not the arrogance of moral superiority. When we choose to see ourselves as the “good guys” and the rest of humanity as the “bad guys,” we literally step into the parable Jesus warned us about:

“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were  righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14

We are not the “good guys,” but the One who is Goodness itself is inviting every wayward soul home. We must drop our need to label. Otherwise, we will quarantine ourselves from the sick we are called to heal and forget our own present need for the grace of God. 

Danger 2: “Us vs. Them” rallies around everything we are against and not WHO we are for. Scapegoating continually requires a (human) sacrifice. 

Look at our modern news cycle. It is driven by drama and enemy making. It feeds on something to be offended about and someone to blame. Bad news sells…but we are in the Good News business.

We are the ones who “regard NO ONE from a worldly point of view” (2 Corinthians 5:16). 

We are the ones who don’t lambast people for their history, but plead with them on God’s behalf to taste reconciliation and discover their destiny. 

We are the ones who continually and courageously choose “no enemy of flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12), instead working to restore our fellow man gently, even as we are being restored (Galatians 6:1). 

We’ve arrived nowhere but the foot of the Cross with a message of scandalous grace and boundless love for undeserving people, of whom we are chief.  

The last scapegoat already went outside the camp to deal with our sins. It’s time we stop sewing scarlet letters on people and start leading them to the one who makes sins that are scarlet as white as snow!

Danger 3: “Us vs. Them” celebrates warmongers and crucifies peacemakers. 

I grieve deeply when I hear us fall prey to the dehumanization that allows us to speak of another beloved human being the way we often do. Sadly, it can happen just as much among the people who champion posts like this, using the words here as fuel to point an accusing finger at those they deem too judgmental. “Judging the judgmental” is an ironic and heartbreaking case of missing the point; one I’ve been guilty of more than I'd care to admit. 

The problem for all of us is that we still cry for Barabbas when we’ve been offered Jesus. 

Jesus is patient, not wanting any to perish. We are impatient, longing for the day the landscape is rid of our adversaries. Jesus asks, “How can I give you up,” while we ask “How much more do I have to put up with?” Have we forgotten that what Jesus did for his enemies was die for them to bring them back home, and that this included us? If we’d read the Story with eyes wide open we’d remember that every time a follower of God believed they and their tribe were the last hope left, violence ensued where righteousness belonged. But we are invited to follow the way of Jesus which is markedly different. Spirituality that raises its banners on the road called “Vengeance” forsake the Via Dolorosa and forget that mercy triumphed over justice…or better, that mercy is the means to all justice. 

Danger 4: “Us vs. Them" loses the church as critical care unit and restoration ward in favor of a country club and a means to gain political power over our enemies.

I cannot point to a Bible verse that calls for me to live a comfortable life, to seek what’s best for my personal financial portfolio, or to just “take care of ‘me’ and ‘mine.’” I do find a lot of verses about how I orient my soul toward the poor, the downcast, the orphan, the hungry, the voiceless, and those on the fringes of society, calling me to love my (literal) global neighbor as I love my (literal) self. Matthew 25’s “Sheep and the Goats” rings loudly for me here. No matter where one stands politically, if we do not ground our hearts, our homes, and our churches to center our priority on the things God values, we will inevitably consecrate our own idolatry as some twisted form of worship.

My hope is not in the one who sits in the White House, but Him who sits on the Throne! 

Jesus is not a Republican. Jesus is not a Democrat. Jesus is not a Libertarian. And it may surprise some, but Jesus is not an American. He loves Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and Americans, but he LONGS for us to stop wrapping our identities in these fading inferior labels. Our banner is as citizens of heaven who walk in righteousness, bleed in compassion, and co-labor with Jesus for the uniting of every tribe, tongue, and nation under his restoring gaze! 

The Gospel we carry has no room for prejudice, but needs to run in wide-eyed and open-armed JOY to: 

Young people and Old people… 

Happy people and Sad people… 

Rich people and Poor people… 

Republican people and Democrat people…

American people and Foreign people…

White people, Black people, Latino people, and Asian people… 

Clean people and Dirty people…

Well put together people and Barely hanging on people…

Free people and Addicted people… 

Law-abiding people and incarcerated people…

I could go on and on. Here’s the key: if there’s ever ANYONE among these people we censor, distance, or place below us as unworthy to hear the adoration of their Father and the invitation to leave their chains and come to the feast, we’ve stopped being servants of the Gospel who need grace and have slipped into thinking we are its Savior who grants it.

In Adam, we all died. In Christ, we all are invited home. That’s the Gospel and it means we have to walk differently.

It isn’t “us or them.” It’s always been “us for them!”