Tribalism

Over the past few months tribalism has been headline news, with public figures claiming their tribal group has been wronged or marginalized. In response their political opponents respond by saying that pursuing tribal interests through politics is tribalism. What is tribalism and how should the Christian think about it?

What is a tribe? A tribe is a grouping of people usually linked by common descent, culture, language and land. The Bemba people for example are a group of people who are descendants of a group of migrants from the Luba-Lunda Kingdom and who share a common culture that includes the Bemba language. What is tribalism? Tribalism is exercising some form of social discrimination against members of other tribes. The root of tribalism is based on the beliefs that ones tribal affiliation is their primary identity and that a person’s tribe is culturally and morally superior. Tribalism can be expressed in several ways. Take for example if a member of the Tonga tribe socialized exclusively (or preferentially) with members of their own tribe. Tribalism can also occur in the workplace if a person in a position of influence uses tribe as a basis for making recruitment and promotional decisions. Tribalism can also be expressed in more negative ways such as genocide.

When we think of tribe Biblically we should realize that though we may be part of a group with a common decent that goes back a few hundred years, it is a fact that “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (Acts17:26) This means that any persons primary identity is that they are a human being created in the image of God just like any other person. Therefore, while my fellow Bemba is my brother by tribal decent, ultimately all mankind are my brothers by virtue of common decent in Adam.

The Christian is also to bear in mind that in the Church despite a diversity of tribal and racial origins there is unity in Christ (Galatians 3:28). It follows from this that there is no place for tribal discrimination in the Church. Indeed for a Christian their main identity ought to be the fact that they are Christians as opposed to their being a member of a particular tribe. In my opinion, if this truth were embraced by all professing Christians we would not have denominations that are primarily associated with particular tribes. Further, I believe it would eliminate the practice of such Churches using the language of their preference as opposed to the language commonly used in an area. (It must be noted however, that these facts do not mean that tribe is non existent nor has no value. Indeed, in the Bible part of the glory of the Kingdom of God is that people from all nations, tribes and languages will be saved from the judgment of God. - Revelation 14:6)

I believe that there are other aspects of tribalism that the Zambian Christian ought to consider. For example some people practice tribalism because they feel that their tribe is culturally or ethically superior to other tribes. As we assess this we must bear certain Biblical facts in mind. First, we should remember that Adam’s sin has extended to all men and there is no person or group of people that are less affected by Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12, 18). Therefore in an absolute sense no group of people is morally superior to another. It is however true that; a particular group of people may be guiltier of a particular sin or set of sins than other groups. One of the most famous examples of this is the case of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 & 19. This group of people was so sinful that God decided to exercise judgment on them in particular. Secondly, all men by virtue of being created in the image of God have some innate sense of right and wrong (Romans 2:14 &15). It is this sense of right and wrong that allows people to behave in an ethical manner. The Bible and personal experience tell us that not all people or groups of people are equally virtuous. Certain people on a purely human level are regarded as being unusually virtuous. This fact can also be true of groups of people. It follows that a tribe’s culture may incorporate and stress particular moral virtues to a greater extent than the culture of other tribes.

So how is the Christian to respond to mankind’s common grace and common falleness? Firstly, we ought to respond with a sense of cultural humility. Whatever the moral virtues of ones tribe, it must be realized that our tribe comprises sinful descendants of Adam just like any other tribe. We therefore, ought not to feel or act morally superior to any other group of people. Secondly, in light of the fact that our tribe has its own cultural sins we ought to repent of the sins of our culture and show others how certain cultural practices are sinful. In the New Testament we see Paul urge Titus to warn Cretan Christians to repent of the sins of their culture. (Titus 1:12, 13). The Christian will therefore not hold on to sinful cultural practices such as polygamy by virtue of the practice being a part of their culture.

A further factor that should shape Christian thought about tribe is that tribes are temporary facts of life. Acts 17 reveals God has limited the time that every nation and group of people will flourish and prosper. In the case of Zambia, this is seen in the fact that Zambia’s current tribes have existed for a few hundred years. Before this our ancestors were members of other tribal groupings. As such our cultures are time bound and dynamic. This gives the Christian freedom to discard non productive cultural practices in favour of new practices that have been developed locally or adopted from other tribes and nations.

Finally, the Christian’s primary pride should be in the fact that they a part of a group of people described as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into the His marvelous light”. (1 Peter 2:3) In relating to non Christians the Christian will display humility since they are a member of this “chosen people” by the grace of God and before they were a member of God’s people they were rebels against God just like everyone else. Lastly, as a member of God’s people the Christian will be obedient to their King’s commission to tell the world the good news that people from every tribe and tongue can escape the coming judgment by trusting in Christ.

Initiation- 21st century style – The measure of a man

He felt like this was the proudest day of his life – he had become a man. Long ago, this would have been marked by when had ploughed a field, killed his first antelope and brought meat home or undergone a circumcision ritual. But instead, the 21st century youth stared at the bottle in-front of him, the mixture of orange juice and ‘tujili-jili’ that his friends had mixed at the back of the hall, during the ‘teen bash’ at school. He had taken the ‘hard stuff’, and two of his friends had blacked out before him. They were going to be the talk of the school the following Monday.

This is the new rite of passage, combined with the number of ‘sexual exploits’ to his name. In the eyes of so many in society, these are the marks of a modern man. These are what the modern youth takes to be the mark of a man, and sadly, many elderly people as well.

This is compounded by the fact that many women have picked up on this, and the men they look for are those who fit the modern ‘champion’ mentality. (I once heard a woman say she will only accept a man who drinks and has a hairy chest… if that is what women are looking for nowadays, rather than virtue and reliability, where are we headed?) This in turn leads other men to try and fit the image that is on demand. And so; “Due to the increase of wickedness, the love of many grows cold” (Matthew 24:12).

A few weeks back on Independence Day, I went to one of the popular Lusaka recreation centres, and was saddened to see the number of youth, (on average 14 years old, I would estimate), drunk. One girl could hardly walk and two of her friends had to support her. One boy had to be carried (literally) by his friend to the bathroom. A girl was pouring some spirits over the chicken she was roasting. If you don’t see something wrong with that picture, I am even more worried. Has this become so normal? The “stuff that teenagers do”?

How did our values shift from productivity (an ability to ‘protect, provide and lead’), to consumption and loose living? Some would link this to a colonial hangover, after restrictions on freedom and almost forced labor, the liberated people go to an opposite extreme; hating and avoiding work as much as possible rather than just hating cruel labor. They life of the former master looks good, but not the work that maintains that life. But this is only a guess.

The book of Proverbs describes the wise man as fearing God, having an honest vocation (not lying in wait to rob others or too lazy to lift his hand from the plate to his mouth), sticking to ‘the wife of his youth’ (not the adulterous woman), upholding justice and compassion. Is this how we view ‘a real man’?

Every child aspires to adulthood, and their ‘aspiration’ is molded by observing and imitating the adults. Long ago, there was a system of apprenticeship, where the family works together much of the time, and the sons learn the trade of the fathers. The family pride in the children’s maturity centered on how they work as opposed to how they play. The child’s expectations of adult life were centered on real responsibilities on not just liberty and leisure.

What is the measure of a man? What is the Bible’s measure of a man? Our Biblical mandate of dominion involves initiative, hard work, planning and endurance. It also demands sacrificial leadership like that of Jesus, the ability to live for others and give everything we have to protect, provide and lead. Somehow, I am not sure that’s what comes to mind when we ask ’What are the marks of a man’. And our society is poorer because of it. Where does the turn-around begin?

Fashion Trends

If you have lived in urban Zambia during the past five years, you have witnessed the arrival of a fashion trend where buttocks, breasts and other body parts are routinely exposed for all to see. This development has produced a disapproving but not necessarily outraged reaction from the more conservative urban Zambian. This conservative urban Zambian sometimes says that the current trend is western and un-Zambian. At other times the conservative notes that things were not like this in the past. The more “progressive” group responds things have been this way before, in the sixties urban Zambia experienced the mini (many in their thirties have pictures of their mothers in minis), later in the late eighties and nineties there was the era of the cycling short and the return of the mini. If this is true what’s the fuss? Isn’t this just a recurring fashion cycle? The “progressives” go further and note in African culture there times women go bare-chested in skirts as short as a micro mini? I believe if we are going to make progress in this discussion we will need to appeal to a standard that can judge both the conservative and “progressive” positions. I propose that we use the Bible the word of God.

I think the first point to make is that God created our bodies, that are inherently sexual by virtue of being either a male or female body, and declared them to be good. (Genesis 1: 26 – 31) Therefore in and of themselves our bodies are not sinful. As a matter of fact by virtue of God declaring his creation good the nude human body is God glorifying. Moving further from the testimony of scripture man was apparently created to live in the nude. (Genesis 2:25) On this basis I would say in any discussion of the appropriateness of dressing we ought not to slip into the error of treating the human body or part of the human body as sinful. This error can sometimes be communicated through the taboos on discussion of topics related to sexuality. These taboos frequently communicate an unspoken message that sexuality (not sexual sin) is a dirty topic. I am aware that when topics related to sexuality are discussed some age and gender based considerations may come into play however the universal taboo on discussions related to sexuality tend to communicate a wrong set of values. A comparison of the taboos on discussion of sexuality with the Bible’s matter of fact discussion of circumcision reveals the difference between the two positions.



Now lest anyone be tempted to become a nudist “because of scripture” let us consider the origin of clothes. The need for clothing is linked to Adam’s rebellion and falling of into a state of sin. (For those unfamiliar with this please read Genesis 3) When Adam and Eve, the whole of humanity at the time, fell into a state of sin their sin caused them to be conscious of their nudity and prevented them from interacting among themselves or with God in their nude state. It should be noted that this guilt extended beyond their physical nudity; however, their guilt included their physical nudity. (For a fuller discussion of the other implications of Adam and Eve’s guilt resources from John Macarthur can be consulted here, here and here)

The Bible reveals to us that because of Adam’s rebellion all people have inherited a sinful nature opposed to God and his holy law and standards. One of the results is that we share our first parent’s inability to interact in the nude without sin. Before we move on two things should be noted about the last point. Firstly, “interact in the nude without sin” does not necessarily mean that nudity leads to fornication or adultery. Since Adam and Eve were married they were clearly incapable of either sin. But it does mean that in thought, word, deed or inaction we fall short of God’s righteous standards in our interactions. Secondly, not all nude interaction is “out of bound”. Medical procedures are an example of an instance where nudity may be required. However, these interactions tend to be exceptional and are usually driven by some form of necessity.

On basis of what we have seen above I believe we can say from a biblical perspective we can say that we wear clothes to limit the effect of sin as we interact with others. Now I am aware that we also wear clothes to protect us from the weather, according to scripture the primary reason we wear clothes is sin. As one reads the Bible it becomes evident that the Bible considers clothing to be a form of language. For example clothes are shown to communicate grief (Genesis 37:34), joy (Genesis 38:14, 19), sexual availability (Proverbs 7: 10), pride (Isaiah 3:16) and formality (Mathew 22:11-12). Therefore, when we wear clothes we are making a statement to the world about who we are and how we want the world to respond to us.

Having considered all this I think we can begin to directly address the issue at hand. Firstly, the trend is wrong because it attempts to go around the main reason for wearing clothes: to compensate for sin. In our sinful state to be without clothes is sexually arousing to others and prevents sinless interaction. Nudity or partially nudity tends to promote various forms of sinful interaction such as “dirty talk”, sexual fantasies, voyeurism, masturbation, fornication/adultery, rape and other forms of sin Any form of dressing exposes the parts of the body associated with sexual intimacy therefore potentially promotes these sins. By promoting these sins persons who wear such clothing will be subject to judgment from God. If you are such a person I urge you to repent of this sin and dress in a more God honouring fashion.

Now as I type this I am aware that there are persons who participate in this fashion trend and have no intention to promote any such sins. Such people may even ask why they must be held accountable for the reactions of other to what they do. To these people I wish to say clothes are a language and a unique kind of language. Unlike words that can be directed to a particular person clothes speak to everybody. A low cut pair of jeans screams to everybody “hey take a look at this what do you think?” Secondly, the people these clothes are communicating with are sinful. There is something in their nature that causes them to rebel against even their own consciences. Therefore, it is asking a bit much of a sinful person not to be sinful so that you can were your fashionable clothing without consequences. So whether you intended to or not you have participated in this serious offense and also need to repent.

If we are to dress appropriately, I believe we must bear in mind the Biblically revealed facts about sexuality, fall and clothing. I believe that bearing these things in mind will keep us from blindly following the crowd and from falling for the lie that dressing is ALL about self expression. While dressing is about self expression it is also about sinners interacting under the eye of a God who will judge all.