Us vs. Them

Long ago, when I was a young, hip youth worker, I ran a Campus Life club for some Jr. Highers here in Redding. As part of my ministry (I was on part-time staff...raising my own support), I was required to attend a leadership training meeting where we devised a basic curriculum for Jr. High groups within Campus Life. Something one of the guys from Sacramento said has stuck with me from way back in 1992. He worked with inner-city youths in the downtown Sacto area. He said that people in the world will continue to move apart...rich v. poor, haves vs have-nots, Republicans vs. Democrats, conservatives vs. liberals, Christians vs. everybody else.

I think he had a moment of prophetic clarity.

We expect a level of Us vs. Them mentality as the each big group (see the list in the previous paragraph) continue to fragment into smaller and smaller groups who's like-mindedness narrows considerably eventually coming to a point where the only group you have is a bunch of individuals.

In this post Jared Wilson finds this has reared its ugly head within the Body of Christ and it disgusts him. (HT to BHT)

I have to agree.

It's like the old Bill Cosby routine where he's talking about the movie "Hud". In his routine he's talking about two cowboys who, in the movie, are shooting the cows because of hoof and mouth disease and, according to Cosby, their conversation goes something like...

"Why are we shooting these cows?"
"Because they have hoof and mouth disease."
"What's hoof and mouth disease?"
"See that foam around their mouths?"
"Yeah"
"That's hoof and mouth disease."
"Oh"
"Looks like you got some on you too...BANG!"

Something like that...

Eric