Have you noticed how frequently public people promise, “I will fight for you”? Politicians pledge to special interest groups, “I will fight for you.” One local law firm promises in a TV commercial, “We will fight for you.” Was the word “fight” used this much years ago? My hunch is no. Well, they are keeping their promise. The news is full of people fighting, and for some reason we don’t feel better.
People are angry. Elites tell us how we…should eat, should exercise, should dress, should raise our kids, should spend, should change our morality… What do we dummies know? “I will fight for you” panders to people’s anger. “Every group that isn’t your own becomes a threat. In a diverse society, such thinking is increasingly dangerous and divisive. Human history is littered with horrific examples of mob mentality that resulted in great evils justified by so-called ‘truths’ propagated in the name of group unity or survival. Tribalism, then, poses one of the most severe threats in a post-truth society, at the very least keeping groups from welcoming or considering another, let alone learning from them.” (Barna Trends 2018, 116-121)
Go to church Sunday and you’ll hear Jesus. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:9-11). This Good News will sink deeper into our hearts by contrasting it to today’s news full of self-centeredness, anger, and fighting. Jesus doesn’t promise, “I will fight for you.” No. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
As I was writing the rough draft of this Minute, a reporter on TV said, “This is going to be a fight.” Isn’t Jesus’ promise so much more welcome?
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