The Trouble with Tribalism

Someone on my Facebook list posted this rant about how wrong the Catholic Church was for giving aid and comfort to Islamic refugees. They said that any acts of terrorism past this point would put 'blood on the hands' of that church. The comments were worse. People speculated about how this was all just some money scam by the church. Why would they help the Islamic ones instead of insisting on helping the Christians in that area?

Some Catholics, who seemed pretty baffled by all this vitriol, tried to explain to the others that they were being pretty hateful. They were shouted down. One of them commented that they were used to seeing anti-religion stuff from the Left, but to see it from the Right was new. They were told they needed to get an education and understand what their church was REALLY doing. You know, based on the fearmongering articles the others were using.

I'm no Catholic, but it seems very clear to me why the church would do this. And it isn't about gaining money or whatever else crazy reasons the people in the comments section were coming up with. They were doing this because it's the basic mission of the church.

You know, the one where Christians are supposed to reach out to those in need? Show the love of Christ? Minister to the lost and hurting? Yeah. That mission. I seriously doubt the church was refusing to take in other Christians. However, if they had limited resources they might not make them a priority. At the end of the day, the church is supposed to focus on the spiritual health of those around them and the Christians were in better shape than the others. They already know Christ. They will have him to sustain them through their trials.

Is it possible that one of the people who is helped will become a terrorist? Yes. Is it more possible that some of these people will begin a path toward a relationship with Jesus if they see his love manifesting in his followers? Yeah, I would say so.

The Right is trying to balance this idea of extreme tribalism with Christianity and those two just don't mesh, no more than Christianity and Ayn Rand mesh. Again, this isn't really my playing field, but for the people on it, they need to consider what their true priorities are going to be.