If diversity is such a good thing, we might expect to find much praise for it in the Bible. But the opposite seems to be the case.

The Dictatorship of Diversity

by William Kilpatrick

It is a bedrock assumption of our age that diversity is a good thing—something to be encouraged and celebrated. Nowadays, for example, a good part of a college mission statement is typically devoted to extolling the institution’s diverse faculty, diverse student body, and diverse course offerings. Similar claims to diversity can be found in the mission statements of almost any large corporation or institution. Anyone who bothers to read such statements will be assured of the organization’s commitment to diversity, its diverse workforce, and its plans to become even more diverse in the future.

Part of this commitment may be due to the fact that companies and colleges that are insufficiently diverse may be liable to lawsuits. Our society has decided that diversity, being such a good thing, must be ensured and enforced. Most large universities, for example, now have diversity officers whose job it is to see that everyone falls uniformly in line with diversity.

If diversity is such a good thing, we might expect to find much praise for it in the Bible. But the opposite seems to be the case. For example, the diversity of language visited on the people of Babel is presented in Genesis as a curse, not a blessing. More importantly, there is little if any support in the New Testament for the idea that the pursuit of diversity ought to be one of the main goals of life. On the other hand, there is much to suggest that unity is highly desirable. As Jesus, the good shepherd, tells his listeners, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10: 16). That doesn’t sound like a call to diversity. Neither do the four passages in John 17 where Jesus prays to his Father “that they may all be one.” Viewed from a New Testament perspective, the world’s diversity of beliefs is something to be overcome, not celebrated.

Yet celebrate it we do because we have been taught that diversity has all sorts of benefits, chief among which is that it “enriches” our culture. This can sometimes be true, but it is important to understand the conditions under which diversity contributes to a culture. Without a proper context, diversity can easily become a destructive element rather than a positive one.

The American experience of absorbing immigrants from many different backgrounds is often cited as proof of the enriching power of diversity. What is sometimes forgotten, however, is that the success of America’s melting pot experiment was largely due to the successful assimilation of immigrants to the existing American culture. Americans took pride in their diversity, but their main source of pride was that America had maintained its unity despite the diversity. The idea that unity should take precedence over diversity was expressed in the motto inscribed on the Great Seal of the United States: “e pluribus unum.” The words can be translated as “out of many, one” or as “one from many.” The hope expressed in those words is a secular analog to Christ’s prayer to his Father, “that they may all be one.” Likewise, in the Pledge of Allegiance the pledge is to “one nation under God, indivisible.” Again, the emphasis is on unity, not diversity.

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