DIVERSITY AS A MORAL PRINCIPLE? by J.
Parnell McCarter
Is ethnic diversity within each nation, town, church
congregation, neighborhood, educational institution, business organization,
etc. a moral principle and a moral imperative?
Such diversity as a moral principle seems to be the
prevailing view in our modern Babel. For
example, see the article at http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/920cf4b2-24be-11e4-9224-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3BgjodZIk
entitled “Silicon Valley’s Diversity Reboot”.
Even many professing Christian church leaders have picked up on it, and
are promoting it. For example, in his
article at http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabitianyabwile/2014/08/19/is-it-goodbye-evangelicalism-or-we-join-you-in-your-suffering/,
minister Thabiti Anyabwile
points out this quest for diversity in these words: “Around the country
evangelical leaders participate in “racial reconciliation” conversations and
repeatedly ask, “How can we diversify our church?” or “How can we attract more
African-American members?” Why would diverse groups want to belong to an
evangelicalism that does not acknowledge their diversity where it hurts when it
matters? You want diversity in your membership roles? How about forgetting your
membership statistics and further diversifying the picket lines and protests
thronged by the disenfranchised in their just fights?” It were as if one of the Ten Commandments
read: “Thou shalt have ethnic diversity within each
nation, town, neighborhood, church congregation, educational institution, and
business organization.” In reality, this
supposed moral principle is absent from scripture, but rather an invention of
man.
Let’s be clear, I am not referring here to the moral
duty to be loving, just, equitable and kind to one’s neighbors of all
ethnicities, nor am I referring to the duty of the church to evangelize all
peoples, but rather the supposed duty to attain ethnic diversity within each
nation, town, church congregation, etc.
Minister Anyabwile in his article cited
earlier implies that in order to successfully do that, white Christians should
join in protests such as in Ferguson, MO.
Joining in so called “social justice” movements often accompany
diversity efforts, neither of which are Biblically
sound. It also often can mean efforts to
adopt unsound worship practices, such as adopting hip hop music in the worship.
Of course, at the same time as this new principle is
being added to the American code of ethics, most of the other principles in the
original Ten Commandments are being shoved to the side. For instance, to discriminate against sodomy
is regarded as a moral wrong in this modern Babel, worldly entertainments are
regarded as acceptable, and observance of the Lord’s Day is rapidly
disappearing.
Every society has a code of acceptable conduct; the
only question is whether it is truly derived from God’s word or contrived by
man.