From a discussion with friends…
DEI, is the perfect antithesis of the Biblical imperative. Externally forced inclusion AND individual license. The Biblical view is voluntary union and restrained individuality resulting in justice and liberty for everyone.
The Biblical answer to the philosophical problem of the One and the Many, resting in the understanding of our Holy Triune God, is perfect individuality and perfect relationship. It is the equal ultimacy of the Individual AND the community. This is the Biblical root of Verna Hall’s Principle of Individuality.
Diminish one, you diminish the other. Rushdoony treated this extensively. When pastors preach against individualism, I point out that they themselves are individualists, standing outside the crowd a bit. Otherwise, they wouldn’t and couldn’t be pastors. The Bible calls for Individualism AND commitment to community, with liberty and justice.
I first learned the concept of such godly tension in thought from Paul Jehle at Jim Rose’s 1982 Leadership Conference at Arrowhead Springs. Life changing. I have come to realize that the tension (humanly speaking) in which all God’s reality is a fundamental to understanding all Scripture.
Mighty man of valor AND meek. One God, Three Persons. God predestines AND choose you this day. The mystery remains in the secret counsel of the Most High. Take heed to stand and keep to the narrow path both speak of this tension.
Our job is to accept by faith the apparent contradictions according to fallen human logic. Accepting and making this thinking mainstream would resolve perhaps ninety percent of the church’s division.
One fundamental is understanding that most Hebrew and Greek words translated righteousness or justice mean both. One aspect is the internal man. The other is the moral outgrowth and expression of the first. Always. Everywhere.
Christians and then all Americans must relearn the both/and that early Americans understood and tried to practice, if we will ever recover the Christian republic.
