Now, I have three kids, and they have all at times need support. I’m sitting in a hotel, having fed the boys and gone swimming, and then (being aware that I’m probably going to help them through four or five years of university) that in the USA and Canada this has been made mandatory.
Which leads to this kind of reaction.
I’m moving on, going my OWN way after finding the joys of family to be no such thing. I took my one chance, and found it to be overall miserable to co-habitate with a female.
Well the family courts (if I am allowed to say this in Australia, where I am at present) are diametrically opposed to the idea of being a father, a parent that the bible shows.
11For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12saying, “I will proclaim our name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” 13And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Here am I and the children whom God has given me.”
14Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. 16For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. 17Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. 18Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
This is one of the strongest arguments against tribalism that I know. As another Chris noted, tribalism sucks rocks. I am going to quote Alte extensively on this.
The idea that everything was honky-dorey until the Evil Feminists (or communists, or racists, or fascists, or whomever) arrived and messed everything up isn’t correct. They made inroads rather quickly because so many people were unhappy with the way things were, and they were the only ones offering answers. They were the only ones even asking the questions.
It’s like with the Nazis. Everyone wants to know why the good German people went for the Nazis. It’s simple: their lives were shit and the Nazis promised them non-shitty lives. The same applies to the feminists. People were open to their ideas because they were tired of women’s (and, to a lesser but not negligible extent, men’s and children’s) lives being so shit. Even men were tired of women’s lives being shit, as they tend to be rather fond of us girls.
And that’s why tribalism has broken down in the USA: because tribalism is shit. Everyone was glad to be rid of it, and the rise of it is marking the decline of our civilization. It sounds great in Nostalgia Land, but go to any country with rampant tribalism and a heterogeneous population and you will see people in constant strife. People get tired of constantly fighting because one group has curly hair and one straight, or whatever. It’s stupid. It’s shit. Christianity was an anti-tribal force by creating a New Tribe; a spiritual tribe. If we devolve down into tribalism again (what they’re advocating, and where our society is heading) then we’ll start killing, raping, and maiming each other again. Oh goody.
Christians who don’t get that have totally missed the whole point.
Now, my wife was not of my ethnicity. And trust me, you struggle, as a whole pile of little things have to be worked out. For example, I still make “eggy rice” (refried rice with eggs) for breakfast for the boys as that is what they grew up with. I gave up porridge (or rolled oats). On a more deeper level, the roles of women and the means of interaction husbands and wives have differ significantly between Confucian and Reformed cultures.
But children should be a blessing. And God says those of faith are all his children. The problem is that we have forgotten what it is to be a good father (or disavowed fatherhood) and thus we cannot understand this.
And when this happens, as it did in the 1920s, a pretty ugly form of tribalism follows.
Tribalism itself is not bad, though it can be over-done, like everything. Some tribalism is in fact often a good thing, helping fence cultures against evils from the outside. Of course, that does nothing to help with evils within the culture…