MAGA world collectively has been having a fit over DEI — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. As I studied the Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership document, the sections I read were rife with anti-DEI language and plans to remove all vestiges of DEI from the federal government. Texas governor Greg Abbott, a MAGA fanboy who is confined to a wheel chair, has also jumped on the “No DEI” bandwagon despite the fact that he is a person with a physical disability. Perhaps he doesn’t realize how he and other wheel chair users benefit from DEI initiatives. Perhaps he is simply pandering to Trump like a bigoted sycophant. Maybe it’s a bit of both.

During the election, MAGA republicans called Kamala Harris a “DEI hire” and then proclaimed that DEI should stand for “Didn’t Earn It” which is the height of irony given the incompetence and lack of credentials of so many of Trump’s picks in both of his terms in office. After the midair collision in Washington, D.C. last week, Tennessee Republican representative Andy Ogles was the first person to ask whether DEI had anything to do with the crash. What an abhorrent piece of political theater at a time of national tragedy. It was all the more galling coming from a person like Ogles who lied on his resume’ thus proving he is a mediocre white dude who “didn’t earn it.” That shows me why he is such a bootlicker for Trump because Trump is another person who “didn’t earn it.” The people of Tennessee deserve far better.

On social media I have seen people who claim to be Christians bemoaning DEI initiatives. I wonder what about diversity scares them so much given that in God’s creation, diversity is literally the norm, and that of course includes human beings. So why is that scary? Equity and inclusion are clearly Christian teachings as well. When Jesus fed the multitudes everyone got to eat because Jesus ensured that there was an equitable amount of food and everyone was included. At the Last Supper, Jesus broke bread with Judas for crying out loud. In the early church, as described in The Book of Acts, Christian communities sold their goods and shared with all members of the community, thus eschewing the world’s fraudulent distinctions of “haves” and “have nots” until Peter made an example of those who refused to do so.

Paul might be seen today as a DEI Apostle. He affirmed women in ministry in his authentic writings, and proclaimed that Junia, a woman, as a prominent Apostle in Romans 16:7. In I Corinthians 11, Paul noted that women were preaching and prophesying in the Corinthian church and in Galatians 3 famously proclaimed that all are one in Christ be they slave or free, Jew or Greek, male or female, thus ensuring that for him, diversity was expected in the Christian movement and in church leadership. He spoke too of inclusion later in 1 Corinthians 11 when speaking about the Lord’s Supper. At that time, it was a communal meal, and not just bread and wine. The problem arose however that some of the well-to-do Christians in Corinth would eat all of the good food, and got drunk on the wine, with left little or nothing for the poor in their church. Paul chided them in 1 Corinthians 11:17-21 in typical Pauline fashion for their abuses and then instructed them to behave differently. Paul clearly expected equity and inclusion for the people in the churches he wrote to.

Of course Jesus’ teachings on love of neighbor and of enemies also speak to the virtues of equity and inclusion. We cannot love our neighbors by making it harder for them to exist through political malfeasance and malice. We cannot love our neighbors by creating inequitable systems or excluding them from participating in Democracy. We cannot love our neighbors by maintaining satanic systems undergirded by white supremacy or absurd ideas like “heteronormativity,” “American exceptionalism,” or the heresy of “Christian nationalism.” Those ideas promote uniformity, inequality, and exclusion — none of which are true Christian virtues.

Christians who take Jesus seriously should be standing up for DEI initiatives because those initiatives protect people who are disabled (like me or Greg Abbott), people who have often been marginalized and excluded like BIPOC peoples, women, LGBTQIA folks, immigrants, the unhoused, the poor, the chronically ill, or the elderly. Christians should not be in favor policies that enable the powerful to hoard wealth, or to criminalize a person’s existence based on their race, ethnicity, gender, age, or sexuality. And yet, we are in a historical moment when bigots and oligarchs are rolling back these protections with the intent to harm. So, I ask those Christians who are anti-DEI, why does diversity scare you, who do you think is undeserving of equitable treatment, and who do you want to exclude? And as you ponder your answer, I hope you will keep the writer of Colossians 3:9-12 in mind because they should be enough to make you change your min.

 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.  In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all! Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Peace be with you.

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