David Foster Wallace wrote, “To function effectively in an environment that precludes everything vital and human is the key to modern life.” True to his timbre, Wallace was a prophetic voice, a John the Baptist with razor-sharp wit, a man crying in the wilderness that is the modern West. His point was that we’re jettisoning the proper values and ingesting toxic values. We’re upside down. We’re calling darkness the light and light the darkness. You remember the prophet’s words, right (cf. Is 5:20)? 

Connection to today: The U.S. Military Academy jettisoned “Duty, Honor, Country!” as the school’s motto. You see, there’s always a god of the system in everyone’s worldview, folks. Who would want the Army’s officers to espouse duty, honor, and country anymore? That’s now passe. But why? Who says? By what standard? 

Modern secularism knows better, you see. That’s the message. The pivot is to the Army Values. Did you catch it? It’s never a question of whether but which. Always, always, always, a set of values is put forth. But which values will they be, that’s the issue? By what standard are values evaluated? Fallen men’s standards? If so, which men? 

I fully support the current list comprising the Army Values. That’s not my point. My point is that there’s always a god of the system, someone whose values are to be followed. If the USMA can jettison its motto and attendant values with the stroke of a pen, on what basis should one think the current Army Values will endure? 

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Pr 14:12). 

This past week, I was TDY for some training in skillsets we chaplains are still allowed to teach—principles regarding families, marriage, spiritual fitness, and more. I love chaplaincy to my core, I truly do. But we are living through a values revolution in our nation where one set of values will attain dominance. The question is, Which set? Will it be those that reflect what is best for human flourishing because they are rooted in their Creator’s Word, or will they be those erected on shifting sands of human secularism? 

Rejoice in hope: My prayer is that God is raising up courageous and biblical leaders who will live and speak truth to those in power, in full knowledge that we all will answer to the Judge of all the earth who always does what is just (cf. Gen 18:25). May God see fit to raise up another generation of Josephs, of Gideons, of Jeremiahs, of Nehemiahs, and more who know what they believe and why they believe it–because the forces of darkness know, and they show no signs of letting up.