Nearly all companies of any size must now pay attention to DEI: diversity, equity, and inclusion.

DEI is a hot topic. For good reason. Since the beginning of humanity, mankind has struggled to manage our biases. During the Obama administration America’s contention with DEI festered and erupted.

Most species exercise bias—extreme in many cases—but as the species at the top of the food chain, you would think human beings could understand that the color of a person’s skin, the texture of their hair, their geographical origin, body shape, gender, and bank account are simply window dressing for the beauty of a person’s soul.

One would think.

The fact that DEI is an issue—such a rudimentary issue that we trip over repeatedly—indicates that humans are deeply and profoundly flawed. We are fallen from the noble ideal our Creator had in mind for us to enjoy.

DEI is important because of the damage a lack of diversity, inequity, and rejection do to an individual’s soul.

After the importance of food, water, and shelter, the most important need a human has is to be accepted and loved. As followers of Jesus Christ, we understand that the need for acceptance is so great that our Creator determined that He alone would be responsible to meet this essential need.

In healthy relationships, we enjoy some acceptance from others close to us. But lingering in the recesses of our humanity, we know that even a mother’s love, a dad’s provision, or the dream job with a wonderful employer are not absolute. Even the place we call home is fraught with insecurity from taxation, fire, duplicitous insurance, storm, and civil unrest.

Within the core of every human soul there is a longing for acceptance, the security of being loved, and the confidence that no force on earth can compromise these necessities. No matter how hard humankind has sought an alternative, human history attests to the fact that God alone is powerful enough and pervasive enough to satisfy this essential longing.

But for fallen humanity to take advantage of God’s offer of acceptance, our knee must bow. There must be a renunciation of me as god and a declaration of Him as God.

For humans afflicted with the poison of pride, it is a bitter pill to acknowledge that degradation is our doing and call upon our Originator for divine mercy. The more acidic the rudimentary sins of injustice become in society, the more humankind must face that DEI issues exist because of our disposition and condition apart from God.

No corporate policy, no ruling of the highest court, certainly no politician; no remuneration, social initiative, statue replacement, or title; no reallocation of wealth, educational funding, or revision of the tax code is big enough, sweeping enough, or far-reaching to sufficient depth to repair the darkness of a creation distant from our Creator.

“Equity” appears three times in Scripture.[i] In each case, its use means to do what is right. In each case, God is called upon to achieve, establish, or execute equity. Like vengeance, Scripture indicates that God alone can accomplish equity.

Large problems require large solutions.

After World War II, Dwight Eisenhower leveraged the size of the Federal government to build the interstate highway system. Connecting America was beyond the scope of any private enterprise. The largest of human institutions, the government, is charged with jobs too big for any individual or private entity. Thus, border security, national defense, and the rule of law rest in the supreme human institution: government.

America finds itself fractured—maybe splintered beyond repair. While there are a variety of plaguing issues, the most onerous and fundamental is DEI, which accounts for the plethora of virtues being signaled by a desperate, insecure society.

Historically, humanity has resolved major issues through governmental provision, war, or spiritual revival.

As long as society moves along in civil flow, it is intoxicating to our human ingenuity to believe we’ve got life by the tail and Utopia is just over the yonder hilltop. With our heads held high, we brush God off to nurse our self-established divinity.

But stress human ingenuity with record inflation, food shortages, supply-chain failure, pandemic, war, and rumor of war, along with a government that is stumbling, blatant corruption, powerful enemies, and an economic engine that is sputtering and our stress descends into hostility, anxiety, and the dog-eat-dog of our original fallenness.

Thus, we are confronted with our three options: war, an expanded and reconstituted government, or repentance before God.

A study conducted by the University of California Davis demonstrated that half of America believes civil war will occur within the next few years. For some time, every media outlet from MSNBC to Fox has been pondering whether or not civil war is inevitable. Over the weekend, The Hill reported that one in three Americans say it may be soon be necessary to take up arms against the government.

The day our politics are more important than another’s life should be the day society pauses to push the reset button. But should is an illusive aspiration.

As has been the case since the dawn of collective society, when Utopia seems within our grasp, any means necessary to achieve the utopian end are morally justified, even if this means quelling dissent.

The governmental ideology of Socialism became en vogue in the late 1800s. Marx studied Socialism and determined that Socialism is Communism not yet perfected. Marx also tied the success of Socialistic-Communism to the eradication of religion and the establishment of nationalized atheism. Belief in God, Marx taught, is the opium of the people.

In other words, Socialistic-Communism cannot coexist with religion. Marx understood that people can either rely upon government or God, but they cannot rely upon both.

Since the embrace of Socialistic-Communism and its societal promise of Utopia, it is estimated that humankind has murdered 120,000,000 of our fellow beings. Their sacrifice is deemed moral in order to establish Utopia.

Ever wondered how Stalin slept at night? Now you know.

Socialism-Communism looks good on paper. The ideological tenets make for great and compelling speeches: Humankind is almost there. Utopia can be ours. We just have to try it one more time. Once more. Again. This time we can establish ourselves as self-sufficient.

This is the current message from today’s Socialistic-Communist ideologues. In order to achieve Utopia, government must be expanded, dissent squashed, and Capitalism denounced. Once done, DEI will be achieved.

A noble idea that we can do for ourselves what we have heretofore been unable to achieve deserves consideration. Even good ideas need to be vetted.

First, let’s be clear: Capitalism is not a form of government. It is simply an economic system, albeit the most remarkable economic engine in the history of the world.

America’s economic system is Capitalism.

America’s government is a republic. Specifically, America’s republic is a representative democracy.

This means we the people of the United States have the power to govern ourselves via our elected officials. Blended with our capitalistic economic system, American citizens have the opportunity to achieve the American dream.

This means we the people are in charge of our own wellbeing.

For many decades Americans have intoxicated themselves with the success of self-governance. And, we may do so again… provided we survive our current reality check.

As grand as America is, we are suffering national disillusionment unlike any time in living history. For the first time in our lives, American democracy and our capitalistic economic engine are sputtering.

Those crying for an end to America’s original structure during our national discontent are advancing the promises of Socialistic-Communism. This begs the question: Why advance Socialistic-Communist government even though it is a failed ideology?

Now, BEFORE you stop reading and write complaints to me about a politicized article, please understand: My job as a minister and writer is to delaminate both society and the Gospel in a continual quest to examine how Father God is present and relevant among us.

So, why rewrite history and ignore Socialistic-Communism’s utter failure?

The answer to the question is not political.

The answer is spiritual.

Given the magnitude of what’s before us, the only options for rebounding from the schisms and issues facing America are, a) war, b) Socialism, or c) repentance and prayer for spiritual revival.

War requires mass killing of fellow countrymen.

Socialism is appealing because it leaves humankind in charge, masters of our own fate, captains of our own ship. If we can only make it work. This time. Yes, this time—if we only try again—we can do government right, establish DEI, and do right for ourselves.

Never mind that God says otherwise. (Thus the reason Marx knew religion was the opiate of the masses.)

As to spiritual revival: Well, that requires humbling ourselves before God. It requires that we renounce the prideful delusion that we can be divine, gods in our own right, and gods of our own realm. It requires asking God for mercy.

Politics is simply observing a small, elected, representative group of our population to see what the larger outcome is going to be. Are you disgusted by Donald Trump, repulsed by Nancy Pelosi, irritated by Mitch McConnel, angry with the Squad?

Whether you register yourself Democrat, Independent, or Republican, the shenanigans of our elected officials and the daily headlines are like looking in the mirror.

How did we get here?

We the people have arrived at this juncture by believing we can be gods. In His mercy, the true God is letting us taste the fermented vinegar of our own divine aspirations. His hope is that we will come to our senses, renounce our pride of life, bow our knee before Him, and humbly ask for His mercy.

This is the state of America. Our issues are greater than President Biden, SCOTUS, or the Fed. What plagues us won’t be solved by the mid-term elections.

Do not be deluded.

Neither Democrat nor Republican can resolve a spiritual problem. Another Reagan or Obama would be interesting, but great men are incapable of fixing a spiritual deficit.

Politics is interesting. While it is important to engage in our republic, history tells us that government is incapable of providing for the most fundamental need aching within the human soul. This ache is what Pascal termed the God-shaped vacuum.

Within every person there is a sucking sound that only God can supply without being sucked-in.

Now is no fun. But now is the time for us to engage based upon what we know as Christians.

We know God. We walk with God. We are members of His family. We are endowed with the presence of the Holy Spirit within. We are people possessed of a new identity. We are secure. While we live in the world, this world is not our home, America is not our destiny, and our future is not tied to who sits in the big chair in 2024.

Our history as followers of Jesus tells us that no matter the circumstance or form of government, our hope is in Him, not who’s in earthly power.

Scripture tells us not to behave like the people do who are without hope.

Sadly, but predictably, my lost friends are growing more and more desperate for peace, security, and comfort. Their desperation is creating some of the saddest stories of my lifetime. Innately, they sense that even government isn’t big enough to care for their soul.

But the prospect of turning to God is repulsive to human pride. Until it isn’t any longer.

As America descends into a dark period, our conduct as Believers must be as people of the light. Now is the moment when we enter the darkness. While our national character suffers and our establishment is in question, there is One who is not duplicitous and who never varies.

Now is our moment.

These issues are the underlying reason I wrote Rigorous Grace: Practicing the Life of Jesus. My intent is for this book to reestablish our spiritual fundamentals so that we, the Body of Christ, are anchored to Him who is the Rock that doesn’t roll.

If my writings resonate with you, I ask you to tell others about the book and about the opportunity to subscribe to my writing.

If you have a study group, I ask you to consider reading Rigorous Grace together. If your study group is comprised of both Believers and Unbelievers, I suggest my book Swagger as a stepping stone into the life of faith.

For over forty years, my folks and I have ministered through the ministry of Lifetime. Our focus has been helping Believers understand what transpired within them when they became followers of Jesus and how to apply this reality in daily life.

My writing has become more pointed, more proactive. That’s because life has become more raucous and the suffering of those around us is more pronounced. Together, we have all we need to represent Father well and do right by our fellow man.

As to the noble ideals of DEI, regeneration and spiritual transformation are our only hope to achieve lasting acceptance and the love our souls long to possess.

[i] Ref.: Psalms 17:2; 98:9; 99:4