Doubting Diversity

As most Americans in the early 21st century know, diversity is all the rage. It's the one quality that seems to give moral legitimacy to almost anything in secular culture. I understand where the concern for diversity comes from. To safeguard against the bigotry of civil rights abuse in the old South and other forms of stupidity, many have thought it best to pose diversity as the greatest good. I work at a secular school which even has a faculty member whose title is "Diversity Coordinator." But, all things considered, diversity doesn't deliver.

On one hand it's true that people should never frown on others simply out of a sense of unfamiliarity. And all sane people realize it's wrong to exclude someone from basic human rights or violate a person's dignity simply because the other holds a different belief. We should all be willing to listen to and thoroughly discern the cultures and beliefs of others--but not as an end in itself. We should be open to learn about the beliefs and behaviors of diverse cultures, to determine which elements in diverse cultures bring us closer to truth!

But acknowledging such a "hegemonic," bigoted idea as truth is blasphemous in the modern church of diversity. As soon as we make a judgment as to what's true, we automatically label all that's inconsistent with it as not true--and that's mean.

I once heard a Hopi Native American woman give a talk to a group of students on the Hopi religion. She said the sun was a god, and some other interesting things. Her ideas were definitely diverse from most others in the room, but what I most wanted to know was, "Is it true?" Of course if I were to suggest it was not--that the sun is really just a ball of gas--I would have been accused of being "exclusionary." Perhaps I would have been reminded that in order to be nice people we should "affirm all faith traditions."

But what could be the value of diversity for the sake of diversity? I would love to be able to ask an administrator or CEO of some institution who's made great efforts to create cultural diversity, "OK. Your institution is diverse. Now what? Diversity is great, but what is true? What is real?"

But again, all this makes sense when one realizes that truth is not typically a concern for those who place diversity as the greatest good. Diversity means harmony, and if one doesn't accept the idea of ultimate truth, I guess the next best thing to shoot for would be harmony.

Christians, however, don't have the luxury of putting harmony first. When we're tempted to take a dip in the warm-fuzzy, anesthetizing pool of philosophical and religious diversity, we should remember Jesus' words in Luke 12:

"Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother–in–law against her daughter–in–law and daughter–in–law against mother–in–law."

MM