Harder Than It Looks
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [e]acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2 NASB
Not be conformed – I didn’t know if I should choose the verse in Genesis (1:26) or this verse in Romans. They’re connected, but not in a way you might think. They’re connected because we are experiencing the result of the collapse of the Genesis ideal while we rush headlong into the warning from Paul. Douglas Murray comments:
“Equality in the eyes of God is a core tenet of the Christian tradition. But it has translated in the era of secular humanism not into equality in the eyes of God but equality in the eyes of man. And here there is a problem, which is that many people realize, fear or intuit that people are not entirely equal. People are not equally beautiful, equally gifted, equally strong or equally sensible. They are certainly not equally wealthy. They are not even equally lovable. And while the political left talks constantly of the need for equality and even equity (arguing, as Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and others do, that equality of outcome is not just desirable but possible), the political right responds with a call for equality of opportunity not equality of outcome. In fact both claims are almost certainly impossible locally and nationally, let alone globally.”[1]
Murray is correct, perhaps simply because he’s chosen to think about the idiocy of both the political right and left. Neither one acknowledges that equality can only actually occur at the spiritual/divine level—at the point of creation. “All men are created equal,” but from that point on culture, circumstance, and the contemporary century divide them. It’s just a fact of life. What Murray doesn’t understand, or at least doesn’t write about, is that this separation came about because of some other pretty colossal failures, most of them theological or religious. “Let us make man in our own image” lasted only as long as God was the only sovereign in the world. And that lasted only as long as Man acknowledged this ontological fact. When humanity divorced itself from its Creator, certain disastrous consequences were set in motion, consequences that are not directly related to moral “sins” but still spell destruction for society.
“As one of the consequences of the death of God, Friedrich Nietzsche foresaw that people could find themselves stuck in cycles of Christian theology with no way out. Specifically that people would inherit the concepts of guilt, sin and shame but would be without the means of redemption which the Christian religion also offered.”[2]
I’ve written before about the enormous impact of the doctrine of original sin, implying that Man is born corrupt, physically, spiritually, and mentally. I’ve also written that when the culture divorces itself from the Torah, it careens into rationally constructed ethical systems, all leading to exploitation of power. Now we add this: when men attempt to build equality on any foundation other than God’s they end up in ethical and political nightmares. Gender identity is but one of these disasters, but it is perhaps the most apparent one. God created us male and female, not blank slates for personal choice.
“The teachings of our day are that everybody is equal and that race and gender and much else besides are mere social constructs, that given the right encouragement and opportunity everybody can be whatever they want to be; that life is entirely about environment, opportunity, and privilege.”[3]
You might think that all that’s needed is a return to the biblical paradigm, and, of course, that really is the final solution (and is exemplified in those small communities that do follow this course of action), but Murray has something to say to the rest of us.
“People looking for this movement to wind down because of its inherent contradictions will be waiting a long time. Firstly because they are ignoring the Marxist substructure of much of this movement, and the inherent willingness to rush towards contradiction rather than notice all these nightmarish crashes and wonder whether they aren’t telling you something about your choice of journey. But the other reason why contradiction is not enough is because nothing about the intersectional, social justice movement suggests that it is really interested in solving any of the problems it claims to be interested in. The first clue lies in the partial, biased, unrepresentative and unfair depiction of our own societies. Few people think that a country cannot be improved on, but to present it as riddled with bigotry, hatred and oppression is at best a partial and at worst a nakedly hostile prism through which to view society. It is an analysis expressed not in the manner of a critic hoping to improve, but as an enemy eager to destroy. There are signs of this intention everywhere we look.”[4]
The big picture isn’t very rosy. The society is unwinding, just as past societies have when the foundations are pulled down. In the West it happened in Greece in the 3rd Century B.C.E. and in Rome in the 4th Century C.E. The Holy Roman Empire followed, then Imperial Spain and France. We’re on the same path, rushing toward collapse while we convert relationship into social media acceptance. I am always shocked at the speed of the decline. Paul’s dire warning about conformity seems not to be given a second thought today. And Genesis 1 and 2 are just relics from the past.
Topical Index: society, equality, Douglas Murray, Genesis 1:26, Romans 12:2
[1] Douglas Murray, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity (Bloomsbury, 2019), p. 168.
[2] Ibid., p. 182.
[3] Ibid., p. 172.
[4] Ibid., p. 245.
