Leading up to the Tower of Babel, the Lord had warned that He designed us to spread out, to diversify and grow varying societies scattered across the face of the earth. The dream of some humans to raise up a single culture and religion to unify all mankind is a moral nightmare with our fallen nature. The fallen intellect simply cannot grasp the necessity of human diversity, in the sense that human reason without the moral anchor of revelation demands uniformity. God says this is evil, but even most people who claim to take the Bible seriously just cannot see that.
The means and methods of moral unity within diversity are hidden from the human mind. It requires the heart to rule; reason keeps operating in terms of efficiency and accomplishment. Reason rebels at the notion that those things just do not matter. Only the heart comprehends that individual human moral development is all that really matters. So we have this incomprehensible situation where the folks who most loudly demand diversity are also the most oppressive and hateful about demanding precisely the wrong kind of uniformity.
The only way we can do it right is to live together in extended families, with tribal social structures and ANE feudal government. Even Western science recognizes that optimal social groups top out around 75 people. After that, things become unmanageable without falling into the sin of centralizing control that leads to oppressive uniformity. The moral necessity for the proper balance between freedom and protection requires a familial feudal structure, and no head of household should have to manage more than 75 at the most. The biblical rule is to begin working toward subdivision after a household hits 50.
And it’s only natural that every such household should develop some variation in habits, customs and traditions. The degree of variation itself is variable based on circumstances. However, the fact of variation is a human necessity. That much is painfully obvious to anyone paying attention. A household is a living being, too, changing and adapting to the context. Adopting new cultural habits and ideas is entirely normal and right, as is forsaking some others. The Bible presumes a certain amount of flexibility in keeping hold of things that matter and letting other things vary, and God promised to keep supplying wise leaders equipped to discern what was essential. God has always supported what He required.
In sum: You must know what God requires of you, and grant others the freedom to find their own way. Defend your own mission and calling, but remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit in how you do that. Remember that the word “martyr” comes from Latin and Greek for “witness,” which in turn comes from Sanskrit for “creating a memory.”
This is the context we keep in mind when we look at current problems. We know that the word “racism” is one of the most abused words in American English. The real source of conflict is unwise effort to make things work in ways they simply cannot. Modern attempts to build a cosmopolitan society violate just about every element of Biblical Law. You cannot thrust widely varying cultural groups together and demand they all adopt alien customs and habits unless you recognize it as slavery.
Despite the wild rhetoric, the real issue is genuine cultural conflict. It includes the very natural human instinct for territoriality. It’s a blasphemous sin against God to suggest that humans should not be territorial. In our fallen state, petty conflict over turf should be taken for granted, not forbidden. Keeping disparate groups away from each other is the only sane way to proceed. This was fundamental to the miracle at the Tower of Babel diversifying language; humanity is supposed to be divided that way. Whatever one might mean by “cultural enrichment,” it must be voluntary. False moral scolding is a sin.
Let’s keep in mind one thing, folks: The dominant Anglo-America culture on which the US Constitution stands is hostile to God’s Word, too. Don’t become an apologist for any single culture existing today, but only what can be abstracted from the Bible. The presumption of Anglo-American culture is to read itself back into the Bible, and that has never worked very well. One of the most despicable elements is the ancient Anglo-Saxon arrogance that proclaims Jesus as an Anglo-Saxon man. Neither was He black or Hispanic, and He clearly rejected His own Hellenized Jewish heritage in favor of Ancient Hebraic culture. We have to shed all of that other stuff to get back into the proper frame of mind to understand what God actually said.
What can a heart-led community of faith do? In our current situation here in the US, it requires keeping your eye on the prize, which is the Creator’s glory. Your individual calling will set the tone, but in broad general terms, we are seeking to infiltrate a world that is very far removed from Biblical Law, and viscerally hostile to God’s truth. Never, ever buy into someone else’s false accusations; their morals arise from idolatry. Stand firm in what God’s Word says about life. Often you’ll just refuse to discuss it because the discussion is controlled and will not allow you to speak the truth. Be ready to speak when the Lord offers a teachable moment, but mostly just walk in that truth. Get comfortable with the idea that conflicts are unavoidable. Demonstrate the power of the Word by how you handle those conflicts.
I had a similar post about this a while back…we agree on pretty much everything about it, but our way of describing is completely different.
For brevity’s sake, I’ll bulletpoint my ideas here:
– The world is diverse (given, self-evident)
– People self-segregate (given, self-evident)
– The kind of diversity people commonly refer to is a personal preference, not a moral imperative
– Diversity within a physical space is a contradiction, since the diversity has to be subsumed under one culture-type. It literally cannot happen, despite there being some theoretical logic behind it.
– Diversity cannot be planned or bureaucratized effectively, since people and groups of people prioritize their personal preferences in lots of internal ways that can’t be quantified
– Bureaucratized diversity preferences = enforced monoculture of law, since all subsumed cultures would have to share the law in common with each other. It’s actually the opposite of diversity (see the fourth point above)
– Bureaucratized diversity preferences will lead to unfortunate blowback. It’s a law of human behavior. Keep in mind that diversity preferences not only include forced integration but forced segregation as well. Blowback can occur when two cultures that want to diversity themselves are restricted from doing so.
Well…that didn’t turn out so brief, but it helps me to revisit it.
Brief enough, Jay, and well done.
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