A Tale of Two Humanities: Human Resource Cattle vs. Image-Bearers of God

Over a decade later, I can still vividly recall the dismissive laughter that came from a generally quite wonderful Christian woman in response to a simple thought shared on the subject of business. The cackle-inspiring concept was this: The first duty and goal of any business should be to honor God with all that it does.

Before I'd even finished making the statement, her face scrunched reflexively. She couldn't believe I would say anything quite as stupid as that (though maybe something close), and then dare to attach the silly idea to Christianity to boot. Did I not realize that the first duty and goal of any business must always be to make a profit? Did I not realize that without a business making a profit that business would cease to exist? (Apparently she'd never heard of the first decade+ of Amazon.com and scores of Unicorns routinely funded by the Wall Street Bankster system.) How, in light of any of these self-evident secular conservative truths could anyone be so ignorant as to argue for putting anything ahead of "making a profit" when it comes to essential goals of a business?

Like most other secular conservative ideas dominating the minds and worldviews of self-identified Christians in Amerika these days, this woman's approach to business - and pretty much everything else in life, at least in the "real world" - was predicated on the assumption that Jesus is not actually King here and now in practice. As such, when it comes to real life here on planet earth, Jesus is not to be taken too seriously or elevated too highly when it comes to understanding and pursuing things like business, economics, education, and politics.

Which is why the realms of business, economics, education, and politics are such an absolute trainwreck here in the United Socialist States of Amerika.

One area of life that the church has largely abdicated to enemies of the Kingdom of God is that of man's relationship with work, business, and economics, especially as it intersects with larger systems, businesses, or enterprises. Of particular neglect in this context has been the biblical presentation of men as individual image-bearers of God in contrast to the currently pervasive and popular view of men, women, and children as human resource cattle to be cultivated, managed, and spent in accordance with the needs or desires of the state and its corporate sponsors.

The term "human resources" when used in a contemporary business or governmental context efficiently conveys the godless materialism and secular pragmatism that defines most churches in the land, so we shouldn't be all that surprised that those churches aren't offering much resistance - or any correction - to the fundamental perversion of the nature of man promoted and employed by the corporate and governmental powers that currently (but temporarily) have a stranglehold on the culture and most individuals therein.

When we embrace or even allow such a radically unbiblical and therefore inherently dehumanizing thing as the "human resource cattle" approach, we are begging for just the sort of scenario and attendant challenges that we are facing now, including:

• "Education" systems that are consecrated to celebrating and promoting the Serpent's pitch in Genesis 3 as the basis of life and culture. The message is simple, clear, and satanic: Set aside the word of God and pursue the understanding and cultivation of His creation apart from Him. That is our system mindset in a nutshell, and that is the mindset that it's "education" systems are designed to propagate.
  

• Home life that is sterile and utilitarian. In the Human Resource Cattle paradigm, home is little more than a place to eat, sleep, bathe, and perform other basic necessary functions. Home is the place that you go to in between "the best parts of life" which are to be experienced in jobs, at offices, and in Genesis 3 preaching schools. In this setting girls are easily encouraged to value careers over homemaking because, well...homes are dull. Homes are boring. Homes are basic.
  

• The needs of the state and its corporate sponsors are openly understood as paramount. Scriptural proclamations carry no weight. Those are for church, and church is a thing you do (if you really want to) on Sundays. Just as profit trumps honoring God in business, so too does the health of the state and its corporate sponsors trump fidelity to the Word of God as it relates to the nature and purpose of mankind. With Scripture removed as the standard by which business, political, and economic policies are measured, the state (or those controlling/owning the state) are elevated to the position of god on earth in practice.

These are just a few deadly consequences of our having allowed the Human Resource Cattle worldview to take root. There are many more.

As our increasingly secular church-business hybrids continue along their present course, the carnage and consequence will only increase. At some point, Lord willing, we will have suffered enough and been convicted enough to repent of our neglect of these basic things, believe that Jesus is King over these areas of life, and finally go about the business of liberating and empowering the abused, neglected human resource cattle of today so that its members might become the vibrant individual culture-shaping image-bearers of God that He has called and equipped them to be.

Is making a profit vital to business?

Of course.

It's just not the most important thing, at least not anywhere in God's creation, which is where all busi