When Truth Becomes Tribal
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” — Exodus 20:16
I’ve been thinking a lot about the primary election results this week, especially Ken Paxton’s win in Texas.1
Ken Paxton has spent years surrounded by scandal. He was impeached by his own party, faced criminal charges and corruption claims, and his wife recently filed for divorce, calling it “biblical grounds.” Still, Republican voters chose him by a wide margin.
I keep asking myself the same question that many others are asking right now: What happened to the moral language that used to be the calling card of the conservative movement? What happened to “family values,” law and order, and personal integrity? It’s easy to call it hypocrisy, but I think something more complex is going on beneath the surface.
I don’t think most voters are ignoring corruption anymore. Instead, it seems like the idea of corruption has been redefined.
When people believe the whole system is rigged, corruption doesn’t disqualify a candidate anymore. Instead, it becomes a sign that someone knows how things really work. The question changes from “Is this person ethical?” to “Whose side are they on?” That’s a major moral shift.
In a culture like this, even the idea of truth starts to change. Loyalty matters more than facts, and evidence matters less than whether a story fits the group’s beliefs. People stop asking if something is objectively true and instead ask if it matches the story they believe about the world.
Once that shift happens, politics stops functioning as democratic discernment and starts functioning more like identity protection. The “other side” starts to feel like an existential threat. Loyalty is seen as the most important value. People distrust institutions unless they help their own group. Corruption is tolerated if it protects “our people,” and cruelty is excused if it hurts the enemy.
I wonder if Americans realize how spiritually dangerous this moment is. This is no longer simply about partisanship. We are watching the gradual collapse of a shared moral reality. History shows us where these patterns can lead.
Authoritarian movements rarely begin by convincing people to abandon morality altogether. They begin by reorganizing morality around loyalty, grievance, and fear. The tribe becomes sacred. The leader becomes savior. Critics become traitors. Truth becomes whatever preserves cohesion inside the group.
The Hebrew/Old Testament scriptures recognize this pattern better than we might think.
One of the most haunting stories in the Bible is about the golden calf. When Moses goes up the mountain and uncertainty spreads, the people panic. They don’t stop being religious; instead, they reshape what is sacred around their anxiety, group unity, and the need for certainty they can control.
In scripture, idolatry is rarely about not believing in God. It’s about putting fear, power, identity, or security at the center of what gives a group meaning.
The Buddha talked about something similar, though in different words. He taught that people get trapped by attachment and aversion. We hold tightly to our identities, beliefs, desires, and fears because they make us feel stable, even if that stability is fragile. When these attachments become too strong, our view of reality gets distorted. We stop seeing things clearly because protecting ourselves or our group becomes more important than the truth.
I think we’re seeing this happen on a large scale right now. Many voters feel disoriented, economically vulnerable, culturally displaced, and psychologically overwhelmed. Those feelings are real. But unresolved fear creates enormous vulnerability to narratives that promise belonging, certainty, enemies to blame, and strongmen willing to fight “for us.”
Modern media makes all of this much more intense. What frightens me most is not just misinformation. Human beings have always struggled with propaganda. What feels different now is the way entire informational worlds separate from one another. People slowly prune relationships, institutions, journalists, experts, clergy, and even family members who no longer reinforce the tribe’s reality. Over time, the social ecosystem seals itself shut.
The silence does much of the work. People stop challenging each other because conflict feels tiring. Communities stop correcting lies because staying united seems more important than honesty. Institutions become cautious. Fear changes how we talk long before any laws do. Eventually, people can’t tell the difference between loyalty and integrity anymore.
That’s why we need more than just outrage right now. We need spiritual clarity.
Democracy can’t survive if people stop caring about truth beyond their own group. Communities can’t stay healthy if loyalty matters more than honesty. People can’t stay free if fear shapes how we think about right and wrong.
I’m not saying this to shame or judge anyone. Many Americans are truly hurting, scared, and looking for stability in a world that feels more and more unstable. But pain doesn’t always lead to wisdom. Sometimes it just makes us more vulnerable to manipulation.
Spiritual traditions keep coming back to the same hard lesson: learning to stay truthful even when the truth threatens our identity, our group, or our sense of certainty.
That work is really hard.
But civilizations depend on it.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Where do you notice loyalty competing with honesty in your own community or relationships?
How do fear and uncertainty affect your ability to perceive reality clearly?
What practices help you remain grounded in truth rather than tribal reaction?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer For Clear Seeing
Loving Spirit, we are living in a time of confusion. Fear reshapes truth. Loyalty replaces integrity. Power disguises itself as righteousness. And many of us no longer know who or what to trust. Keep our hearts from hardening into tribalism. Give us courage to remain honest, even when honesty costs us belonging. Teach us how to love people without surrendering reality itself. Help us resist the temptation to make fear, ideology, or political identity into something sacred. Protect us from the comfort of certainty when certainty requires us to stop seeing clearly. And in a culture flooded with noise, propaganda, and performance, help us remain people capable of humility, discernment, compassion, and truth. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Interrupting the Tribal Mind
Today, pay attention to how quickly your mind categorizes people into “us” and “them.” Notice what happens in your body when you encounter political opinions, headlines, or conversations that threaten your existing worldview. Observe the impulse to immediately defend, dismiss, react, or withdraw.
Do not shame yourself for these reactions. Human beings are tribal creatures. The goal is not perfection. The goal is awareness.
Then try one difficult thing.
Read something carefully from a perspective different from your own without immediately preparing a counterargument. Listen long enough to understand the emotional world underneath the belief. Ask yourself what fears, losses, hopes, or identities may be shaping the other person’s reality.
This does not mean abandoning truth or accepting harmful ideas. It means refusing to let fear narrow your capacity for discernment and humanity.
The spiritual traditions teach that freedom begins when we can observe our attachments rather than being controlled by them.
That work is slow. But it may be one of the most important forms of resistance available to us right now.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
June 2, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.
June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on praciting eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.
September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.
October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
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June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.
JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/26/ken-paxton-texas-senate-runoff