With the January 6 assault on the Capitol and the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president on January 20, our nation survived a major constitutional crisis. While we enjoy a sigh of relief and voice a prayer of gratitude, one of the major underlying factors in the crisis has yet to be addressed. It lives like a silent cancer in our nation's soul, robbing it of vitality and health. It must be recognized and addressed if we are to survive as a nation. Thankfully, the Church has something to say about the issue. The teachings of Jesus and the Apostle Paul give us guidance in how to address it. The issue: how do we deal with diversity.
Diversity refers to how we are different.
We humans have always struggled with diversity. We as a nation - true to our human nature - have struggled since our inception with how to deal with our differences. The common way we humans deal with diversity - and the way we as a nation have followed - is through tribalism.
Tribalism is based upon sameness. We associate with those like us. Tribalism operates out of us-them thinking. It views those who are different as a threat to us and ours. Associating with those like us provides us a sense of identity along with a sense of security.
We don't have to look far to find this kind of tribal thinking in our history. In the first century of our nation's history, immigrants naturally sought out others from their homeland. Pockets of different nationalities could be found throughout the country. The influence of these pockets are still evident today: Italians in Chicago, Norwegians in Minnesota, Irish in the Appalachians, Germans in central Texas, Asians on the West coast, African-Americans in the South. The list goes on and on - traces of tribalism that still exists today. The various denominations within the Church reflect this tribalism.
Tribalism's us-them thinking is not just about who we associate with. It also creates social ranking. Us-them thinking naturally leads to better than-less than thinking. Given the differences in how we think and how we do things and how we live, whose way is right? Which way is better? Naturally, each tribe believes "my way" is right. That means my group is better than - superior to - the other ... and, by association, I am, as well! The other is less than - a step below me. In other words, living out of tribalism naturally creates inequality in society. One tribe becomes dominant. Its dominance is based upon power and wealth. (The two - power and wealth - always go together. Those who control the money supply have power over those who don't.) The dominant tribe calls the shots. Others adapt to its will.
From the beginning, the dominant tribe in our history has been white men of wealth - land owners and business owners. Their control of the land and the businesses gave them control of the money supply. All others had to adapt to them because they held the power.
During the 20th century, the power of white men began to be challenged. In the early part of the century, women demanded the right to vote. Labor unions challenged the power of the corporate owners. The Civil Rights Movement advocated for rights and opportunities African-Americans had been denied. Migrant workers, led by Caesar Chavez, picked for better working conditions and higher pay. Women's right to vote expanded into women's liberation. LGBTQ people began to push for recognition, protection, and equal rights under the law. All the while, immigration from non-white countries increased. The Islamic presence increased.
Diverse groups - rather than being content to adapt to the will of the dominant, white male tribe - demanded to be recognized and honored. They refused to live under white male dominance. As diversity increased, a way of life was threatened: one dominated by white men, by wealth and affluence .. and by Christians.
The January 6 assault on the Capitol building was a predictable push back against the social changes that our nation has been experiencing for the past 100 years. It was an attempt to reassert the old way of life - one dominated by white men and by a Christian worldview. This way of life has been given a name: white supremacy. Unfortunately, many of us cannot see this fear of and resistance to diversity in terms of white supremacy. We deflect reality, viewing the assault on the Capitol as the work of far right extremists and domestic terrorists.
And that's where the teachings of Jesus and Paul come into play. Jesus refused to live by the social distinctions of his day, embracing each person as a beloved child of God. Paul grasped this great truth and proclaimed, "in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female" (Galatians 3:26, 28). Colossians 3:11 proclaims that in Christ "there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free" (Colossians 3:11). Both Jesus and Paul call us beyond the social distinctions created by tribalism with its us-them, better than-less than thinking.
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul argued that diversity is God's design, a gift of the Spirit. These God-designed, Spirit-given differences allow each person to contribute something to the greater good. They allow each person to have value and place within the fellowship. And, like the various parts of the body, they allow the fellowship to function as a coordinated body, doing the work of Christ.
The theological term for this way of living is "unity in diversity unto community." Unity is a oneness that is not based on sameness. It honors the differences, seeing them as gifts that make the group stronger. The result is community, living together in mutually rewarding ways.
Obviously, living out of unity in diversity unto community requires us to move beyond our inherent tribal thinking and functioning. It calls us to move beyond fear-based, anxiety-driven thinking and living. It calls for more mature thinking and functioning. It calls for a radical change of heart. It calls for the transforming work of the Spirit.
It is popular to speak of the United States as a Christian nation, founded on Christian principles. (Whether that is true or not is a topic for another blog post.) Perhaps it is time we as a nation live out of Christian truth rather than tribal mentality. Or, perhaps, it is time for churches to live out of this Christian truth, modeling its validity for the rest of the nation.
If we are to survive as a nation, we must learn to live with our diversity, seeing it as a gift rather than as a threat. We must find our way to unity. There's too much at stake.
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