Even humanist analysts deplore the conduct of mankind.  Michael Lewis wrote of it in his book: Flash Boys.  Philip Broughton referred to it in his review about: The New Barbarians. And wrote that their lies [are] nostalgia for a . . . Wall Street of trust and plain dealing, which is a total mirage.  In The Interrogator: An Education, Glenn L. Carle told the story of the coercive methods of interrogation used by the American authorities in trying to extract information from suspected terrorists.  They even covered evidence of the process, and tried to shame persons objecting to torture systems.  Gordon Mathews in his: Ghetto at the Center of the World, reviewed the way, low-end globalists eke out profits from petit arbitrage.  He covers everything from prostitution on site to the sale of heavy machinery and the chicanery related to getting products from Hong Kong and the Chungking Mansions to home ports.  The story is unbelievably seamy.  The persons involved at the Mansions community get along because it is good for business, but as an interviewee said: We don’t like each other.  They have no real belief in positive integrity and trust.

How do we account: for anti-Semitism, or inequality of any kind relating to nationalities, generations, genders, races or any other prejudice that divides human beings; for the massive violations of trust in business offering products that have, in their failure, produced danger or death for innocent families; for dishonesty that misleads, so to steal time and are capable of introducing national and personal tragedies;  for violation of family that may cause divorce, abandonment of children, mistreatment to abuse for family members, and loss of direction in society; for avoidance of duty and responsibility to community, in breaking laws that offer decency in social conduct; for revenge based on real and alleged personal mistreatment of persons and society; for warfare which becomes mass murder; for greed that neglects the needs of restricted human beings; for habits of language and other forms of communication that reduce the dignity of human beings, and appeal to the lower thoughts and motivations available to mankind; for cheating on documents and actions, sometimes admitted by the masses of students and citizens in life experiences; for thievery related to petty materials taken from a home or office to massive amounts of money or property taken from a bank or investment institution (like a Ponzi scheme); for the enormous violation of the human meaning related to the sanctity of the individual in the nefarious uses of sex privately and publicly in all its many manifestations; for distortions of truth even in some replications of experiments competent for evaluation entirely in the natural order; for failing others when the means of assistance are available to relieve need and suffering; for failure to apply our sensibilities to the solution of problems; and, for pride that reduces the meaning and efforts of others (especially of God, who finds self-centered pride a major block to his grace).  This litany can be extended to a number of Pages.  We must summarize.

Whatever name others may offer for the above list may be, theologians offer the word depravity.  Scripture supports the idea that it is inherent in human beings and needs to be addressed if we are to emerge as we are meant to be if God is to accept and award us.  And, it is found necessary that the issue must be addressed in the individual to gain acceptance of God so also to gain a rather universal hope for persons.  Hope for the Christian is immortality, made pleasant no matter how pleasant or unpleasant the experience in nature.  If understood there are features of the blessed hope that prematurely visits the devout person.  All that mankind can do when a matter gets out of order is to punish the offender, perhaps with incarceration or even death.  There is no natural (human) surety for the tenacity of the negative condition of the natural person.   Management of human consequences does not offer adequate cure.  Scripture offers a straightforward solution of acknowledgement (repentance), request (prayer) for Jesus Christ to remove the inherited human infection, and faith that spiritual healing has taken place.  From that point the individual moves forward to seek the maturity of the redemptive plan through active involvement from God through the Holy Spirit.  To accomplish this Scripture offers sanctification, justification and righteous life.  The experience is not as exotic as it may sound.  It has been the gift and blessing of God to billions of persons for centuries.

*Mark W. Lee, Sr.2016, 2020