Diversity, Equity, Inclusiveness, and Accessibility
Christian concepts or evil liberal frauds?
I have been thinking about this since day one of tRump 2.0. My interest in diversity, equity, inclusiveness, and accessibility is personal and professional. I teach Counseling Diverse Populations to counseling students. And my own multicultural counseling class in my master’s program changed my life. I think it is important to point out again that I was in the ministry in different roles for over 20 years. I was senior pastor of a couple of churches for 11 years. I can read Hebrew (still, although not as good as back in the day, I admit) and I have a good grasp of Greek. Probably sounds odd, but my interests lay in ancient history. I also studied cuneiform. Loved that!
To my point, as a Christian and a counselor (but not a Christian counselor), I do not see what the Christian Nationalists find so offensive about diversity, equity, inclusiveness, and accessibility. It simply highlights their racism, their denial of justice, and their desire to lord over everyone around them. So, I want to play a little game today called, “Find Diversity, Equity, Inclusiveness, and Accessibility in the Bible.”
Diversity
Diversity seems pretty straight forward. It means being different, having variety. And it is all around us. To celebrate diversity is to celebrate the fact that humans are different in a multitude of ways. Two white people who grow up in two different parts of the United States are going to be different in some ways from one another no matter how much they may look alike. Does the Bible talk about diversity? Of course it does! From Genesis on, you see diversity in how God created the earth and everything in it. Just look around and you can see this. In Genesis 1:21, we read, “So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” So, not only was God’s design to demonstrate great diversity, he declared it was “good.” And in Genesis 1:27, we read that God created “man (i.e. all of humanity) in his image….” And again, he declared this to be good. If you believe in the Bible’s account that God created Adam and Eve and all of humanity came from their union…then they held the genes of every race within their bodies. Every race.
What does Jesus and the New Testament writers have to say about diversity? Glad you asked! Jesus was sent to the Jews and he commissioned his disciples to go out and spread the word about him (the gospel) to all nations. But there are some examples of Jesus interacting across racial and ethnic lines that are instructive. I’ll show an example of one here. Matthew 8:5-13 tells the story of a Roman centurion who came to ask Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus offered to come to his home, but the centurion demurred saying he was not deserving of having Jesus come under his roof. Jesus, we are told was “amazed” at this Roman’s faith and healed his servant. So, while Jesus’ mission was to the Jewish people, he did cross racial and ethnic lines at times.
His disciples, after some prodding by God, eventually did start to go out to other races and ethnicities. Paul, in particular, said quite clearly that diversity was God’s plan for the church. One of my favorites is Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Racism, classism, and genderism all broken down in one verse.
Equity
So, it seems that diversity has a pretty strong place in Christianity. How about Equity? You won’t find the word “equity” in the Bible per se, however, once you understand what equity is, you will see it everywhere. Equity means fairness and justice. Justice is kind of a big topic in the Bible. First, let me demonstrate the difference between equality and equity. This causes a lot of confusion, but can be easily cleared up with a simple picture.
Equality is everyone treated the same. Equity is everyone treated fairly or justly.
There are over 115 verses in the Old Testament alone that refer to justice. One that always gets my attention though, is this one. Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” Act with justice, i.e. equity. No matter one’s race, ethnicity, creed, color, economic status, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity. One more verse I want to leave you from the OT: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’”
Consider what little Donny and his administration are doing to the widow, the fatherless, the alien, and the poor. You think this is in any way Christian?
Jesus talks a lot about equity, or justice as well. In one of his strongest condemnations he states, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former” (Matthew 23:23).
So once we understand equity, it is clearly something that Jesus was concerned about, much more so than the Christian Nationalists.
Inclusion
Inclusion simply means that all are included - in society, in church, in schools, in government, etc. Many verses come to mind, but this one from James 2:1-4 stands out: “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
Given that this is precisely what is happening in little Donny’s administration under the guidance of Project 2025 and it’s writers (i.e. Russell Vought, etc), if you are a Christian who is following the Christian Nationalists, you might want to consider separating yourself from them before the lightning strikes.
Accessibility
Have you ever tried to reach for something that was just outside of your grasp? Frustrating isn’t it? Well imagine living one’s life with not just things, but concepts like fairness, justice, peace just out of your reach. Unfortunately, those carry a heavy burden when they are not in your grasp.
There are actually a few verses that come to mind regarding accessibility. Most show how the lame and unwell were kept away from healing centers and out of sight of those who were considered healthy. For instance, lepers were considered unclean, so they were made to announce themselves so others could avoid them. But Jesus routinely welcomed them and used their healings as a sign of his kingdom. One verse that stood out to me as I was thinking about this however is this one, “And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’” (Luke 2:4-5).
Not only does Jesus welcome accessibility (he healed everyone that came to him), but he appreciates that we, friends and family of those facing inaccessibility, do what we can to make accessible that which was not.
Friends, there is nothing evil about seeking diversity, equity, inclusion, or accessibility. The Bible supports each of these. In fact, I would argue that the opposite is true. Christian Nationalists expose their evil intent to dominate our country through racist, sexist, and ableist policies. These are divisive views and are antithetical to democracy as well as Christianity. Removing these from society will have profound and devastating consequences.
I hope you enjoyed the little “game.” Thanks for reading my blog and stay in the fight.
Knowledge is Power.