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Thoughts on Diversity and the Church

Jason Steffens and Dunker Journal both link to this opinion by David Brooks in The Atlantic.

My opinion on diversity is that it's a good thing but overrated. Did Jesus ever said anything about diversity? Well, not explicitly, though perhaps he did in an indirect way. In the Great Commission, Jesus told us to go out and make disciples of all nations. If we did that, the Christian church would be a diverse body, and of course it is, when looked at from a worldwide perspective. So why should diversity get all the attention it's getting? The church should be welcoming of all who earnestly seek God and wish to become members of the Body of Christ. But should diversity be the primary goal? I think that a broader vision would be to cast a big net (consistent with the Gospel of course) and accomodate everyone who responds, regardless of their identifying characteristics. I've read somewhere else, and it's repeated in Brooks's article, that those organizations which talk about diversity the most are those which practice it the least. Another way of saying that is that the most diverse organizations are those that just go out there and present the gospel to everybody, without considering diversity as a primary goal. This doesn't mean that diversity is a bad thing, but rather that we shouldn't limit ourselves by the "quota-think" which diversity-for-diversity's-sake seems to encourage. The Gospel is for everyone, and when presented that way, diversity should take care of itself.

This isn't meant to deny that when God tells someone to preach the gospel to someone specifically, they are to respond to that call, as Jonah did for God's call to preach to the Ninevites, and as modern missionaries do when they go out into the world. Local churchs, though, should minister to all those who live around them.

Posted by joelfuhrmann at August 18, 2003 10:09 PM