Biblical Assessment: Diversity or Division?

God’s Word values the diverse aspects of His Body with personalities, ethnicities, and giftedness! However, pop culture has drifted far from a Scriptural focus on the beauty of diversity and turned it into a divisive point of contention! The themes and subsequent questions in this questionnaire help highlight some risks when focusing solely on “diversity” over Biblical “unity.” This questionnaire has been created to guide organizations, churches, businesses, and groups that hold to the foundation of historic Christianity and stay grounded biblically. It is also an effective inventory for concerned Christ-following individuals in a context that frequently speaks of diversity and DEI.

1. Unity in Christ Over Diversity:

(Verse: “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5, One blood-Acts 17:26)

1. As the term “race” is not in the Bible and we are one people united to Christ by faith in His name, why are we focused on diversity rather than unity? (The Bible speaks of nations and people, that would be ethnicity over skin color.)
2. While it is not wrong to use the word “race,” would it not be wise to use it with an explanation of biblical context when teaching or studying Scripture?

2. New Creation- Identity in Christ Over Identity of Culture:

(Verse: “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:14-16, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21)

1. If Christ reconciled us to Him through the cross into one family, His family, is our reconciliation to Him and adoption into His family not enough to bring unity to all people?
2. If Christ brings unity, are earthly identities not replaced with our new identity as his children adopted into His family?
3. Have we twisted the model first to reflect the diversity and worldly identities over and against our newly adopted family in Christ?
4. Does this cultural identity reflect our hiring, goals, numbers, and assessments to where we focus on skin color, race, gender, and minorities? Or are we centered on biblical criteria, such as character and skill set? Have we assessed the community to see the local demographics, and are we letting the Holy Spirit lead? Or are we focused on forcing cultural diversity to meet cultural requirements?
5. Are we conforming to cultural DEI and identities or biblical standards and identities?
6. Is God concerned about how many people of each race and Krenshaw’s intersectional identities you have on staff or involved? Or is God focused on the heart of the organization and individuals?
7. Which identity or identities are driving your organization and laying the foundation? Which identities define diversity for your organization?-

3. Holy Spirit Over Woke Consciousness:

(Verse: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,” 1 Corinthians 2:12)

(“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” Romans 8:9).

1. Christ says we are a new creation once reconciled to Him; are we adding to this work by subtly referring to or encouraging lament and a new awakening of diversity?
2. Whether considering others are not as informed, woke, awakened to, or insinuating they have not listened to the voices of the oppressed enough, are we not creating a new work or even “enlightenment” for diversity?

4. God’s Word Over the Word of Others:

(Verse: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14)

1. Do we think we are more informed of diversity when we listen to the voices of the oppressed, over or in addition to the Words of Jesus?
2. Might we be placing standpoint or viewpoint epistemology over the gospel? Is it not the gospel revealed in Scripture that opens eyes and hears to biblical truth and saves them, not people being enlightened by the testimonies of others that do not honor biblical truth?
3. Individuals like Esau McCaulley believe that biblical interpretation can be done differently by race. If God created one race and one gospel, is His gospel not to be interpreted as the author, God, intended? Should we be concerned with the teaching of someone like McCaulley, who says that as he was reading, he personally developed the “Black ecclesial instinct or method” to interpret Scripture? Is this exegesis or eisegesis, and which method or methods are we teaching?

5. God Determines Right & Wrong Over Culture:

(Verse: “And the heavens will tell how right and good He is, for God Himself is judge.” Psalm 50:6)

1. DEI says we live in a world of victims and oppressed, and “impact over intent” intent does not matter; when someone is hurt, they determine if a wrong has been done, a micro/macroaggression. 
2. Does this not reflect that everyone has the right to dictate sin, not God?
3. If intent does not matter, a foundation of CSJ/CRT/wokeness, why does God look at the heart?

6. Forgiveness Over Record of Wrong:

(Verse: “It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” 1 Corinthians 13:5)

1. Are we teaching others to recognize various types of micro and macro aggressions, which are sins, rather than encouraging forgiveness and no record of wrongs?
2. Is this not grooming a culture that holds wrongs, creates victims, and stirs up bitterness, rather than offering forgiveness, mercy, and grace?

7. Substitutionary Atonement Over Works:

(Verse: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8)

1. Did Christ’s death on the cross count as our substitutionary atonement, and was that payment not made when He said, “It is finished?” (John 19:30).
2. If so, are we adding a new required work by means of ongoing lament, woke enlightenment, and social justice as required by culture?

8. Hope in Christ Over Lament:

(Verse: “And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:2b-5)

1. As the word lament is rarely used in the Bible after Christ’s resurrection, why are we now teaching culture to live in lament? Does this not counter Christ’s death and words that, “It is finished?” (John 19:30).
2. When will this ungodly lament end? (Academic theorists and modern voices say they do not know what marks enough.)

9. God’s Word Over Altering Truth:

(Verse: “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.” Deuteronomy 4:2)

1. Is it possible we are misusing Scripture and causing others to do so?
2. Have we gleaned from someone like Jemar Tisby, a “believer” that teaches secular concepts as a means to unity and antiracism?
3. Are we okay with bringing in a “Jemar Tisby” knowing that a “antiracism” is a solution created by Ibram X Kendi? Now knowing that Kendi says this antiracism is a secular method and that he does not need a Savior. In light of this, should we as Christians support antiracism, which is a method of works? Antiracism teaches racism is systematic rather than a sin problem, and humans continue to float between being racist or antiracist; are Christian individuals, such as Jemar Tisby, not syncretizing the gospel with worldly ideologies of works? Have we been teaching or indicating that we support an altered version of the gospel with works that never end? Have we accepted the idea of Kendi’s that discrimination is good if it is based on creating equity, as defined by the world?

10. New Life Over Past History:

(Verse: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” 2 Corinthians 5:17)

1. Why does DEI emphasize history? Because racism is considered a problem with the system, and history is needed to understand the ongoing cycle of power and roles/individuals perpetuating this new explanation of good vs. evil, right vs. wrong.
2. Are we focused on the past, history, or the power of the cross, forgiveness, and being a new creation?
3. Are we bringing speakers who use a secular lens of power and intersectional roles to teach history and define right vs. wrong and good vs. bad based on culture-defined roles/identities? (I.e. Tisby, Kobes de Mar…)
4. Do we often use or hear terms such as power, sex, male domination, white oppression, authoritarianism/Patriarchy and women as victims, Intersectionality, privileged vs. oppressed, systemic racism, or privileged vs. oppressed?

11. Test Against Scripture Over New Ideologies:

(Verse: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Romans 12:2)

1. Might we need to research the history of capital “T” Theory and concepts that fall under DEI and social justice, so we clearly know what is being brought into our university? (Jemar Tisby, Be the Bridge (Latasha Morrison), Esau McCaulley, and Kristin Kobes Du Mez are a few examples among many.)

12. Always Have an Answer Over Ignorance:

(Verse: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15)

1. Did you know that “racism,” in culture’s view of diversity, is THE problem with the system and reflects in all things? If racism is THE problem with the system, are we now replacing a Christian Worldview with a new wrong in the word and a new “original sin”? Now add in “anti-racism” are we replacing the Christian Worldview with a new secular solution to “the new original sin, and the problem with our world, racism”? Are we not removing the need for a Savior since people now determine right and wrong? Are we not promoting a new, hopeless end without the Savior? 
2. Are we studied and informed from the original sources, and did we test the culture’s version of DEI with Scripture?

RECOMMENDED SOURCES:

Neil Shenvi 

(website, Facebook, “Critical Dilemma” – book coming, articles, and book reviews)

Thaddeus Williams 

(“Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth,” book)

Monique Duson 

(Center for Biblical Unity, CFBU; “Reconciled,” curriculum)

Kevin Briggins 

(Every Black Life Matters)

Monique & Kevin 

(“Off Code” Podcast)

Owen Strachan 

(“Christianity & Wokeness,” book and “Antithesis,” podcast)

Voddie Baucham 

(“Fault Lines,” book & YouTube videos)

Virgil Walker & Darrell Harrison 

(“Just Thinking” Podcast)

Samuel Sey

(“SlowToWrite” Blog & Facebook)

Dr. H.C. Felder

(“The African American Guide to the Bible: Second Edition,” book)

Edwin Ramirez

(“The Proverbial Life” Podcast)