My high school church youth group was my gang. Our initiation was professing shared beliefs. When I felt out of place elsewhere, I was welcomed and supported by them. I only dated the girls in the gang. I could be their leader when I felt like a nobody elsewhere. Our perspectives weren’t limited by poverty; we were made myopic by our neighborhood of white wealth. We went door to door, not with threats, but with invitations to help us collect magazines and newspapers for Louisville’s new recycling center; we sought to preserve God’s creation. We invaded our streets by cleaning up dozens of homes destroyed by the 1974 tornado. Our “West Side Story” was “Godspell” where I was to perform the role of Jesus.

Our church allowed our group to talk about almost anything. We asked deep questions with complex answers as we began to evolve beyond a childish christian faith. We ate, laughed, traveled, and played together. We role-played in situation games to learn about ourselves, others, and life. We couldn’t come to a moral consensus when one older brother fought in Viet Nam, and one older brother objected; we still supported each other.

Maybe my experience helps me understand the pressure adult gangs feel to normalize white christian nationalism in their religious or political groups. I have to confess that in my youth group I doubt I would have put truth over tribe, because of my stronger desire to be liked and accepted. My explanation cannot be an excuse.

How have you felt accepted by a religious, social, or political community? Where was your vision limited by your gang? When have you felt pressured to put tribe over truth and how have you responded?