PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

September 8, 2021

WHEN “THEM” IS “US”

Last October Diane and I took two of our granddaughters who are students at the University of Indianapolis out to eat at a Cracker Barrel not far from the university.  Election Day we took two of our other grandchildren who are students at Indiana University Kokomo out to eat also at a Cracker Barrel not too far from their university.  Following lunch they gave a tour of their school.  The University really has a nice campus.  I even picked up one of the student papers, “The Correspondent.”

To put this second trip to Cracker Barrel and the subsequent tour of the Indiana University Kokomo campus in context, I am a 1963 graduate of the Purdue University.  I spent another year at the school taking education and physic courses so that I could teach math and physics in high school.  Upon graduating I joined the Purdue Alumni Association.  For many years Diane and I have been members of the John Purdue Club.  Presently, we have season tickets for both men’s and women’s basketball.  For many years we had season football tickets.  You might say we bleed “black and gold.”

As you may know Purdue’s arch rival is Indiana University.  Over the years I have had much friendly banter with supporters of “the other Indiana university!”  When two of our grandchildren decided to attend Indiana University Kokomo you might say that “them” was now “us.”  I should mention this was not the first time “them” was “us.”  Diane has an MSW from Indiana University Indianapolis.  In addition I make a yearly contribution to the Cancer Center at Indiana University.

Fortunately, my support of Purdue University does not prevent me from being excited about my grandchildren attending Indiana University Kokomo.  They both have good reasons for going there.  My support of one university does not mean that I have to degrade and put down the other.  It would seem that “them,” Indiana University, has a way of becoming “us.”  In several ways I am not only a member of the Purdue family but also the IU.

Unfortunately, in our country we have descended to “us” and “them” thinking  Both sides degrade and demonize the other.  Tragically, the hostility between “us” and “them” in the political arena has become all consuming.   It is one thing to disagree with someone; it is quite a different matter to attack them personally.

Life has a way of taking strange twists and turns.  Events can bring together persons from opposing sides in positive ways which can have disastrous results.  Such conflicts are the stuff of fiction.  Perhaps the most famous example is “Romeo and Juliet.” Their two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, had been feuding for years.  They had descended into the “us” vs “them” syndrome.  When the two young people fall in love, they find themselves caught in an impossible situation which has tragic consequences.  In the real world “us” vs “them” thinking can have equally disastrous results.

Early Christians came from a diversity of backgrounds which were in conflict.  Gentiles did not have much to do with persons from Jewish backgrounds.  When they became Christians the “them” now had become an “us.”  Paul deals with this conflict in his letter to Corinthians who had their share of divisions:  “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greek, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” (I Cor. 12:13)  Paul encouraged his readers to focus on what they had in common rather than their difference, on what made them “us” rather than what made them “them.”

During these difficult times it would be well for all of us to focus on what we have in common rather than what divides us, on what makes others “us” rather than what makes others “them.”  One thing we all have in common is that we are Americans.  More broadly, we are members of the human race.  It is to all our advantage that America does well and the human race survives.