Why the New Testament calls “Party Spirit” a Sin

A (conservative) reader writes:

My wife just looked up at me from the morning paper and said, “I hate conservatives, and I don’t want to be associated with them.”

This is surprising. She is very conservative, morally and otherwise. “What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Michelle Bachmann is jumping all over Michelle Obama for trying to encourage mothers to breastfeed,” she said. “Honestly, these people. What is wrong with them?”

Said the breastfeeding, La Leche League enthusiast.

The problem with party spirit, like all sin, is that it makes you stupid. You forget that the goal is the common good and start thinking that the goal is winning and defeating the Other Party. You ignore and deny what people in the Other Party say (even if it’s “Breastfeeding is good” or “Twice two is four”) because your top priority stops being “What is good? What is true?” and becomes increasingly, “How can I shout down my opponents in the other party?”

Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:19-25)