DEI: Another Casualty of Hamas

by Dennis Gladden, Green Pastures, ©2023 

(Nov. 13, 2023) — DEI has died.

R.I.P.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion expired last month in much the same way it lived: on a bed of anger in the public eye. It was another casualty of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7.

In cities across the globe—London, Paris, Washington, D.C., and more—multitudes took to the streets waving flags of red, white and green; chanting “From the river to the sea”; showing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is not alive and well in the Middle East.

Or anywhere that supports the livelihood of Jews.

Hamas, the invader of Israel on October 7, lives to kill Jews and exterminate Israel. DEI is nowhere in its constitution. The boisterous, swarming supporters of Hamas consent that inclusion does not include Israel.

When inclusion excludes anyone, then everyone is vulnerable. DEI is dead.

How did we get here?

Difficult to pinpoint because of its nature, DEI is said to have been birthed by hope for fair treatment at work and equal rights in the voting booth when the Department of Labor organized a Women’s Bureau in the 1920s. Its adolescence brought the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s.

The flood of DEI programs has not cleansed us.

DEI became the rage this decade after George Floyd and several others died in police custody—unnecessary deaths that fanned a summer of violent protests across the un-United States in the name of Black Lives Matter.

Employers consequently enrolled countless numbers of us in hours of mandated DEI training, and I thought more than once during YouTube after YouTube video, “This is pointless.” The wisdom of James came to mind:

The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. —James 1:20

The days of rage since October 7 have proven me right: the flood of DEI programs did not cleanse us. I don’t hear a whisper about DEI from the pro-Palestine protesters. I see the world growing weary of trying to force Russia to admit the globe has room for Ukraine.

The pro-Hamas rampage has silenced DEI.

Genuine DEI: God’s Christmas gift in Christ

But I am not mourning, because genuine Diversity, Equity and Inclusion arrived long ago, in the coming of Jesus Christ.

God declared it through angels immediately upon the birth of Jesus:

“On earth peace, goodwill toward men!”  (Luke 2:14).

The Apostle Paul caught its meaning when he told followers of Jesus there is “neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28).

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He elaborated in another letter. Addressing his non-Jewish readers, Paul wrote,

You were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation … (Ephesians 2:12-14)

Aliens, strangers, without hope or God. What exclusion!

But now! This is the call of genuine DEI. But now, Christ had “abolished in His flesh the enmity, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:15-17).

In a perfect world, no one would emphasize Black Lives Matter because all lives matter—black and white, Jew and Arab, Asian and European. No one would protest for women’s rights when we adhere to the self-evident truths declared in our Declaration of Independence: All are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.

The ways we have concocted to improve an imperfect world are futile.

Of course, the world is not perfect. Allured by teachings that “have indeed an appearance of wisdom” we settled for DEI in lesser forms like BLM. Paul encountered the same seduction in his generation.

Why do you submit to regulations—”Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?  These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.  (Colossians 2:20-23 ESV)  

So, this is how we got here: We have concocted ways to make an imperfect world better rather than pursue perfection.

“When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away,” said Paul(1 Corinthians 13:10-11).

The perfect has come—in Jesus Christ—and in Him, all of our aspirations for genuine diversity, equity and inclusion are fulfilled. The reason Christian DEI works is the phrase, “in Christ.” Paul explains, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh” (2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

Left to ourselves, we live for ourselves—intolerant of those who infringe on our self-indulgence. But God has not left us to ourselves; Jesus transforms us. “The love of Christ controls us [so] that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

There is no cure in the DEI we are accustomed to because the hatred behind racism is in our hearts, not our heads. Change our hearts, and then genuine diversity, equity and inclusion are possible. This is precisely the heart of the Christian message—God changes us from the inside.

“From within,” said Jesus, “out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. (Mark 7:21-23)

Hence, God’s promise, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26).

You want to belong? Belong to Jesus.

The DEI put forth by our culture’s creative minds was justly angry about pervasive injustice, but could never produce the righteousness of God. Its obituary was inevitable.

Jesus, whose grace extends to even His enemies, calls us to embrace Him for who He is, the Desire of All Nations (Haggai 2:7). And then, in Him, will the Lord’s prayer be answered:

“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me … also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:9, 20-21).

Here is DEI, indeed.