Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit. In the midst of rulers who devise division and hatred, Jesus is on a Spirited mission for community and love. “As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew.” “He said to them, “Come after me.” “At once they… followed him.” He “saw two other brothers.” “He called them, and immediately they… followed him. He went around all of Galilee… proclaiming the Gospel of the Community of God, and curing every disease and illness among the people.”
When Jesus called people to join in him on the Way of communion and love, he was initiating a personal transformation and a social one. It was personal because it called people to an integrity of conscience – live free of rulers and live for your goodness and that of your brothers and sisters. It was social because all the many people Jesus called formed a beloved community – the Community of God. Jesus establishing a loving community between many different people is the exact opposite experience of coercing people into joining a cult, like Militarism. A cult is defined as a hierarchy that rules over a compliant group that is exclusive. The exclusivity need not develop into extremism, nor into violence. Unfortunately, the white nationalist cult currently terrorizing the U.S. is exclusive, extremist, and violent. Anthony Stahelski, an expert on social psychological conditioning, identifies five phases used by cults to produce terrorist members. First, Depluralization: strip away all other group identities. Rather than maintaining a variety of relationships and connections, members understand themselves from an ever-narrowing identity. Second, Self-deindividuation: strip away each member’s personal identity. One’s uniqueness, one’s integrity of conscience is diminished to lure them toward group attachment and group think. Third, Other-deindividuation: strip away the personal identities of opponents. So too the uniqueness and conscience of those targeted as ‘other,’ is diminished. Fourth, Dehumanization: identify the other as enemy, as subhuman or nonhuman. This enables cult members to injure or kill them. Fifth, Demonization: identify enemies as evil. This final phase sanctifies the injuring and killing of enemies since they epitomize badness. Christian Picciolini was lured into such a cult, a violent white nationalist cult. He was moved through each phase but, over his eight year membership, never really let his conscience be fully diminished. Then, one day he had an experience that pulled him out of the cult. He was beating a young black man when suddenly he locked eyes with his victim. He felt within himself “a surprising empathy.” “And that was the last time I hurt anybody.” He had always loved music and opened a music store. He disengaged with the cult and formed a community, Life After Hate. He counsels members of hate cults so they can disengage too and begin to reengage with the fuller human community. He may not be “curing every disease and illness among the people,” but Picciolini is curing some important ones, division and hatred.
“Over time, my customers and I would strike up conversations about music that led to deeper discussions, allowing me to humanise people that were once the objects of my hate. I began to develop empathy for them – and also received it at a time when I least deserved it, from those I least deserved it from. Once I began to connect with others that I once hated, I could no longer justify that hate.”
Prayer: Spirit, lead us in the Way of communion and love.
Question: How often do I engage with people different from myself?
January 26, 2020 Gospel Matthew 4:12-23 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time