“6 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Stephen Is Seized 8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” (Ac 6:1–15 ESV)

Just having a foothold in the world, it isn’t so free as in capitalistic as in, you have a good idea, you can turn a dime on it. Our world is hectic and scary. Just like the storied walk down Main Street, today all enterprises, outfits, organizations, each becomes a soup-to-nuts intelligence outfit, an apparatus for Deducing, in some cases for ends of monetization, in others because of the boredom of monetization for its own sake, and Principled Engagement with our broader world: people do good in “sin” industries like banking or marketing, like pipelines for material wealth and regaled Church Herself. It is a vain notion of the church-goer, that hers or his is a more “noble” occupation: dirty money aside, capital has proven to be the gamechanger for morals as well.

Indeed, there is never “monetization for its own sake”; always presuppositions and philosophies of human worth, of eschatological end times, of Created Order, do waltz in. The learned rich man or woman reads her or his philosophical tomes, and in a crisis of conscience goes the Franciscan route: gives it all away, or goes the Noble Leader, trusts their own decision-making to “do good”, to do no evil, in our world.

Because a penny can be earned on sociological knowledge, more, on literally reputable people and families, churches and synagogues and temples and mosques. If only to be Well-Poised for Tomorrow. For Tomorrow’s War, where every streetside Glance may betray an inner animal deserving of confrontation, where every smirk may invite a Corrective Measure. Corporal Punishment invites itself in to roost upon Finding inimical entities in the world: war is corporal punishment writ large.

War… whether wearied twenty-somethings of human origin will be replaced by robots, drones, and burrowing machines, tanks and automated negotiation… whether we literally will value our Tech more than our People, whether we will agree to determine it all through One Shared game of chess or standardized test of… what do we value? Intelligence? Heart? Religious aptitude/spiritualism? In all these things we have not adopted a Utopia any more than others in the prelude to all-out war, call it inter-bellum, but call it Stark, Alert, Watchful, and Sober.

The gates come crashing down and each of us is called really to Know, both our calling-of-bluffs, Negotiating Tactics, and the devil-may-care I don’t care who your father is, who your mother is, this is My Land. We are both sensitive, innocent of greater designs (just in it for the ride!), and sly, immovable, punchy, and Firm. Weirdly, we have learned to fight even as conciliatory by nature, even as malleable by Life Experience, the Waves of educating in manners and society, in just that weird way in our mid-life we can still see how progressive and smart the youth are, but how the Perch of Sapience goes a few—took decades to learn—steps deeper. What is age? What is education?

That is, mechanized war or human lives on the line, our Theology stands in service to the belief: that to Dictate Man’s condition plainly (original sin, total depravity, salvation in Christ Alone) is to Go to War. Suddenly the war is brought to our doorstep because, never were we floating along on a river of Grace: always we were clawing and nimbly or awkwardly climbing, yearning for clean air, gasping for Something Easily panicked-over and lost.

The corporate Intelligence, then, business intelligence as it is called in the journals, makes martyrs and dreamy-eyed Fools of any on the cabinet or board meeting who Believes: “No, I really insist we take the minor cut in profits, and invest in our world a bit more”. Fool. But this fool can live in posh digs (per custom), can have a greater moral impact than those in “clean industries”.

History nudges the soldier Today to a theology of Now Sacrifice because Tomorrow War will be dreadful. We are, after all—if it is true institutions and organizations are clawing through their own corporate intelligence about our world—servants and supplicants unto our Heavenly Cohort of Leaders, CEOs, and Presidents. Who may well be Good People. 

The true Thought Work, however, however franchised and re-invented, regards Life made aware and made Cautious. It regards fighting for principles about ten years ahead of so many “in the mix”. We coiffe, and we suggest, prophecy and lay hands upon, the relic of society that is Passing Away. We make quick assessments and “cuts”. We yearn to Recall that Word dealt us in the angsty and wrestling-match engaged Day-to-Day life in community, on the subway (“Go calm, patiently watch…”), the “What am I doing here?” existential free-fall, met with the Peace that Passeth Understanding, some Peace that speaks Peace unto all whom we meet, that this soldier ain’t gonna one-up or ape you, if you only will allow he or she is a good minion and servant of the Lord.

To the one done passed over so much opportunity for patient Foothold and Respectability in the community, to this one the portal is open, because fortunes change on a dime, because it is no profiteering but rather Insanely Beautiful opportunities available to any who “get it”: idea-trade, capital of ideas, stark Fields White for the Harvest. Nothing financial, no profiteering, but set up your kids to do the portal route, to be the portal for others… we may need air-traffic-control around here! Because everyone and anyone wants to experience the Portal. That void and vortex wherein we in what traditionally were the gentle waves just of interaction with the staff, today is an Aggressive “you sit there, let me make a few calls”. All these things because the Agent suddenly “rich” in experience, in their own rolodex, in the ability to speak a word basically Peace, to relay a message basically Peace back to the home front, to inspire if not the man or woman herself, to inspire the community—all of us interdepend, whether at the top of the totem pole or not—to put forth a Christ figure. To race to the airport in order to Talk Shop, not in a top-down society where either you “get with the President” or leave the country, but in real Beauty of how capital has built safe havens for Ideas, for Contracts, for Negotiations. And thoughts run the gamut of Wow factor, because we are of plethoric Speech, overflowing with paragraph after paragraph, but still yearning quite to Recall and Record the deepest experiences of our day or days before.