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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church

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with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and

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faith. And today, I want to explore the zeitgeist of the progressive mind, if we can call it a mind,

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and what makes them so odd to us, to me anyway, what makes them so disconnected from reality

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and really outright dangerous to those of us who want to live in a free, rational, and prosperous

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republic. And I have distilled this endeavor into our title, which is The Trap of the Tribe.

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The Trap of the Tribe. Now, I am driven to understand the phenomenon of the progressive

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and his diseased worldview. And I've driven to do this for a number of reasons. First of all,

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as Sun Tzu so aptly put it in his classic, The Art of War, know your enemy if you will defeat him.

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And secondly, I have friends and family and neighbors. I live in Teton Valley, Idaho,

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which was only one of two counties in the entire state of Idaho that went blue in this last election.

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So I have many friends, family, and neighbors who are hopelessly ensnared in the progressive mindset.

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And I want to understand them before trying to persuade them, really. And then thirdly,

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I feel like I'm presented with a puzzle, a mystery of the human condition, which is difficult of

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discovering and solving. I want to know the progressive mind, once again, for the sheer

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enjoyment of solving a difficult puzzle or mystery. So, all of us concerned patriots,

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we are confronted with a host of irrational, absurd, and dangerous ways of thought and behavior and

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culture and politics, which, at the end of the day, are like what Winston Churchill said of Russian

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behavior, like a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. For many of us, that is the progressive

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mindset, right? For instance, why is it a human person can think that by turning our boys into

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girls and our girls into boys, that is transgenderism, that we will have a subsequent generation to inherit

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our culture and then do it by butchering their organs and poisoning their hormonal physiology to achieve

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these ends? Or why is it that a rational human being can think that aborting their children in the womb is not

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genocide, and that anything like a cohesive subsequent generation can be bequeathed with abortion? Why is it that a

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supposed rational human being can say any blasphemous lying absurdity that comes to mind in the name of free speech and the

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first amendment, while at the same time censoring and canceling any other voice that might disagree with or oppose them all in the name of

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disinformation or hate speech, right? Or why is it that a supposed rational mind can maintain that disarming the law-abiding citizens of a free republic will make them safer in the face of a

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growing criminal culture, which only scoffs and flaunts at those laws in order to predate on the defenseless and that criminal culture fully armed with

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weapons denied to the citizen? That is not reasonable. Or why is it that a supposed rational person can deny the foundational attribute of a

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nation that is borders and still think they live in a nation without treachery, treason, disease, poverty, and ignorance and contempt for the country, all of which

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border security is erected to filter out, right? Even Pollyanna, the benchmark metaphor for naivete, would have to say, come on, progressive, what are you thinking?

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Or why is it a supposed rational citizen can countenance and enthusiastically endorse the criminal prosecution of other innocent citizens like

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President Trump or the January 6th defendants from 2021, grandmothers peacefully praying outside of abortion clinics, mothers challenging their

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school boards or fathers, their city councils, jailing conservatives on social media for supposed hate speech, and

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these same people think that they live in any form of a just society? Well, many metaphors have been proposed to define this

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riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma that is the progressive mind. For example, Elon Musk,

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famously calls it a mind virus, right? Which he trusts has been killed in the ascendancy of the MAGA movement, or Michael

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Savage famously labeled it liberalism anyway, a mental disease, and others have described the progressive mind as

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maybe brainwashed or cult thinking. But none of these labels have the breadth and depth of explanatory power that

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tribalism does. The website neural launch.com, for example, has a dense and pithy summary of

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tribalism in human evolution. And I quote, quote, tribalism at its core is the human tendency to form groups

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based on shared characteristics, beliefs, or interests. It's a psychological phenomenon that has its roots

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deep in our evolutionary past. Our ancestors relied on close-knit groups for survival, sharing resources,

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and protection against external threats. This tribal psychology became hardwired into our brains,

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shaping our social behaviors and cognitive processes, unquote. A good, relatively brief definition

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of tribalism. And we have to say, ah, oh, dear listener, we are much more a product of our genes and

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generations than we ever suspected. Insofar as we are unconsciously submersed in our particular tribe,

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we act not according to rational choice based on logical thought, but rather we act according to

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pre-established well-known norms that are cherished by the collective of the tribe. Tribal norms and rules and

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laws. Well, many other features of the progressive walking around in our land today will be

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observed. But there is a guiding principle which ties all of the seeming absurd beliefs and practices of the

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progressive into a cohesive whole. The trap of the tribe. The trap of the tribe. Here is the key to

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understanding the pestilential worldview of the modern-day progressive. To begin with, what is a tribe?

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Well, the Oxford English Dictionary defines a tribe as a group of persons forming a community

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and claiming descent from a common ancestor, or one of the three political divisions of patrician

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orders of ancient Rome, or a race of people, a class of persons, unquote. Early in our development

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as a species belonging to a tribe increased one's chances of survival in an otherwise brutal, lonely

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world. When God condemned Cain, for example, to be a fugitive and wanderer in the earth for the murder

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of his brother Abel, Cain appealed in despair. He said,

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My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground and from

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your face. I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me

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will kill me. Oh, a tribe of men hunting together, for example, could more likely bring down game for the

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group than an individual. Or a tribe of men could more likely defend the members of the group against

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other predators and enemies than an individual. And to be banished from the tribe, put outside the camp,

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as the Bible puts it, meant certain death in a hostile wilderness. It was a harsh punishment in

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ancient Israel to be banished from the tribe. Ezra chapter 7, for example, says,

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Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on

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him, whether for death or for banishment, or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment,

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unquote. The man banished from the tribe lived an ignominious twilight existence if he managed to live

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at all. Forgotten by the tribe, this man was a desperate non-person at best and a bleached skeleton

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in the desert at worst. In many respects, to be separated from the life of the tribe was a fate worse

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than death. On the other hand, the individual human being, as he evolved over the millennia,

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derived his positive self-worth and his identity from his belonging to his tribe. Even the humble

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apostle Paul, in brandishing his credentials as a sterling Israelite, he bragged in Philippians chapter

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3, I was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of

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Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, unquote. And secular wise, Julius Caesar, for example, was a descendant

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of the Julii clan of the tribe of Alban. Related families were aggregated into clans which were

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congregated into tribes. Julius Caesar's very name, Julius, was an identity statement of his roots in one

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of the founding tribes of Rome, the Julii clan of Alban. He was therefore of a high patrician class

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and had a claim on power and authority in Rome, a claim that he wielded for all the advantage and leverage he

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could muster, right, becoming dictator of Rome. Well, even today, the egalitarian American, right, ostensibly

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dissolved in the great American melting pot. This American still likes to wistfully brag on his tribal roots,

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maybe, right? The proud Scotsman displays his family crest or his tartan weave. The Comanche Native

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American has the horse in almost every representation of his tribe. And various African tribes have their

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own distinctive adinkra symbols. Oh, these are fascinating to look at and to get into. The African

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adinkra symbols that communicate profound names and meanings and traditions from Africa. Well, you know, I'm Dutch, for

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example. I'm Dutch and where I come from, Western Michigan, if you ain't Dutch, you ain't much. Well, dear listener, we are

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hardwired to think and feel and respond to tribal culture, for better or for worse. Consequently, with so much

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riding on the success and survival of the tribe, conformity to the tribe's norms and traditions

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by the individual is vital. Any deviation from tribal standards threatens the larger tribe and its existence.

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Consequently, right, if you want to fish while the tribe hunts buffalo, you pose a potential threat to

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the tribe. If you want peace while the tribe seeks war with other tribes, you pose a threat to the tribe.

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If you want to migrate north while the tribe prepares to travel south, you are a threat to the

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well-being of the tribe. Even the simple matters of custom and practice, things like clothing or

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language or manners and civil behavior towards other members of the tribe or religious tradition

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within the tribe, all of these must be of a cohesive whole if the tribe is to function smoothly

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and live to the next day. And those elders then, those elders who know the rules of the tribe and

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enforce them, they become tribal leaders, tribal chiefs. And deviation from tribal norms by the individual

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risks severe sanctions, right? As Ezra said, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for

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death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment, unquote, right?

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One of my favorite movies, Platoon. At one point, Sergeant Barnes says, when the machine breaks down,

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we break down. And I ain't going to allow that in any of you. Not one, he says to his men. Now, Barnes was

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an instinctive tribal leader. When the tribal machinery breaks down, the tribe breaks down. And no chief,

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no chief worth of salt is going to allow that. That's why across the millennia of time, there are few

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loyalties as strong as tribal loyalties. That gives us an insight into today. Because over the course of

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history, and I'm telescoping a lot of this, as cultures and societies grew more and more sophisticated

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and complex, as they did in the West, primitive tribal psychology became a hindrance to progress,

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all these things we've mentioned. Survival in ancient times, but a hindrance to progress in modern

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times. Especially during the period of the Enlightenment, mankind began searching for

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universals, that is, principles that transcended the mere colloquial thinking of the tribe.

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One of those important universal principles was that of human reason, dear listener. Yes,

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employing reason's power to science and human relationships. Tribal divisions and hostilities

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could be better overcome. This was a principle well-established in both Greek and Roman culture.

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For example, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius said, he is a true fugitive who flies from reason.

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Yes, but it was the period of the Enlightenment, really, when we finally began applying this faculty

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of reason to the human mind to the human mind in universal expectations. All men could meet on the

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playing field of reason and logic and solve universal problems and make science work for all the tribes of

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mankind. In fact, the entire period became known as the Age of Reason. And reason became the structure of

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thinking for many of her philosophers. The great philosopher John Locke said very poignantly,

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logic is the anatomy of thought. I like that. Logic is the anatomy of thought. But for the best men of

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that period, reason was not divorced from religious faith either. Reflecting on that time, the great G.K.

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Chesterton says, reason is from God. And when things are unreasonable, there is something the matter,

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unquote. Reason is from God. That is precisely why the thinking of the progressive defies reason.

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Oh, it is unreasonable to think that men can have babies. It defies reason that biological men

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should compete in women's sports. It flies in the face of reason to suppose that an entire economy can

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be predicated on the endless horror of war in Ukraine, for example. It is also unreasonable to

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suppose that a nation can exist without well-defined, well-defended borders. And one cannot be rational.

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And suppose that a citizen can be well-defended when he's unarmed, and the police are being defunded

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and degraded, and the criminal in society is armed and emboldened and growing by the day.

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But those who think this way, and then act on that pattern of thought, are not simply brainwashed or

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victims of a mental disease or infected with a mind virus. No, the scope of irrationality here is much

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larger. They are captives in the trap of the tribe. It's a whole cloth fabric of culture, if you will.

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The tribal chiefs who determine the norms and behaviors of the progressive tribe know exactly

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what they're doing, too. They reward the faithful tribal member with an endorphin rush of clicks

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and followers and blue checks and retweets on social media. They conversely keep the tribe in line

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with fears of being canceled if they post the wrong opinion or say a positive word for a banished one

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or say negative words against the tribal chief on social media. The average tribal member in

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progressivism is profoundly incurious, too. Satisfied with what he hears on CNN or Fox News or gleans from

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Apple News. He or she gets their marching orders in cliches from profound thinkers like Alexandria

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Kizzi or Cortez or Nancy Pelosi or Bill Gates, who all in turn are told what to say, think, and do by

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the tribal chiefs. Those same chiefs are increasingly masters of the financial spigot, too, for the

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progressive, whether government welfare or jobs at Amazon fulfillment centers or Starbucks baristas or

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writing code for Microsoft. Increasingly, the members of the tribe find themselves able to afford their

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daily bug protein and cell phone, but not enough to buy a home or pay for car insurance. Now, I'm painting

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with a very broad brush here, but I trust that you can discern that the progressive tribe is functioning

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not as some freakish aberration of the human condition, no, but rather in a well-oiled, highly tuned,

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ancient mode of behavior anchored in our genes. The tribe, the architects of our destruction,

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know precisely what they are doing here also, dear listener. They are deliberately aggravating

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tribal conflicts in order to divide and conquer us. Yes, they are, at the end of the day, tapping

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ancient fears. Straight tribe versus trans tribe. Vaccinated tribe versus unvaccinated tribe. Immigrant

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tribe versus American tribe versus American tribe. Pro-choice tribe versus pro-life tribe. Anti-gun tribe

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versus Second Amendment tribe. Never-Trumpers versus MAGA Americans. Pitting us against each other at every

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opportunity. Yes, the architects of our destruction are playing on ancient tribal fears, and they change

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norms and expectations at will to moving the goalposts to deliberately confuse and control the members of

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their tribe. All the progressive tribe used to be anti-war. They are now pro-war. The progressive tribe

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used to be anti-big pharma and big government and big ag. Now, the progressive is pro-big pharma,

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pro-big government, pro-big ag, right? Oh, the architects of our destruction tap the tribal impulse

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in order to divide us and to make us fight one another instead of them. So, dear listener, recognize

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the trap of the tribe for what it is. It is a play on your ancient genetic code to make you sink

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into conflict with your fellow American when reason and faith should be your guide, those universal

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principles of humanity. There is now one tribe, for example, that is the body of Christ. For our eternal

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and spiritual life, there is now one tribe, a free American for our temporal, physical life here on

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earth. Oh, the apostle Paul put it this way in terms of that eternal people of God now, one tribe,

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if you will, one people in Christ. Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of

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God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither

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Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ

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Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." Unquote.

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We are all of the tribe of Abraham, if you will, now in Christ Jesus, people of faith and the framers

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of our constitution, men like Jefferson and Adams and Madison, they envisioned it not for a specific

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ethnic group, our constitution, or race of men, or tribe of men, but they intended it for all men who

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cherish freedom and liberty. The preamble itself reads like this, we the people, not we the Dutch,

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we the English, we the French, no, we the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect

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union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general

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welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish

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this constitution for the United States of America. So, dear listener, do not succumb to the trap of the

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tribe. Call those who are entrapped in the tribal mentality and tribal thinking to come out. Indeed, reason

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with them, show them the way out, and pray for them. And make sure that you do not succumb yourself,

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but live your life in the true liberty and freedom of the Lord Jesus Christ, first and foremost, and

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secondarily, as a free American. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian

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Church, and we at New Geneva are free from the trap of the tribe, and we meet for holy worship on Sunday

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at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And I encourage you to visit us.

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Drop by, you'll have a friendly welcome, and you'll find a place to worship in spirit and in truth,

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and to come out of the trap of the tribe as well. And you can call us for more information or more

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