The Bible and DEI

 

When a Blackhawk helicopter crashed into a commercial passenger jet on January 29, 2025, newly elected President Trump came to the podium to offer the expected condolences and clarify new information. He surprised the nation by suggesting that DEI (Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion) may have had something to do with the crash. By the time he addressed the nation he had obviously been briefed that the two Blackhawk pilots were women. The suggestion to anyone not half asleep is that women shouldn’t be flying helicopters because they are not as fit as men. Which leaves the question, would they say the same about a Black or Latino pilot?

A kerfuffle on The View TV show arose when the women began to discuss the new press secretary for the Trump administration, blond, 25-year-old Karoline Leavitt. At some point Joy Behar exclaimed that she got the job because Donald Trump thought she was a “10.” That actually got Behar fired from the show. As a comeback, Alina Habba, Counselor to the President, asserted that the former press secretary under Biden, a young black woman named Karinne Jean-Baptiste, was a DEI hire.

From online media Raw Story: Trump’s short-lived pick for acting secretary of state for public diplomacy, Darren Beattie, fits the Stephen Miller job profile. Last May, Beattie wrote on X, “Higher quality humans are subsidizing the fertility of lower quality humans. Foundational reality of social and political life in the post war west.”

Add to that, Trump has ordered that all mention of DEI and associated programs be scrubbed from all federal government agencies. It appears from those stories and others that this administration is not advocating for total colorblindness, but is actually advocating for white supremacy.

Since Evangelical Christians seem to still be enthusiastic about the new administration’s policies and anti-woke procedures, let’s review a bit about the biblical approach to DEI.

The Poor

The two most egregious sins in the Old Testament are idolatry and neglect or abuse of the poor and needy by religious leaders.

Psalm 82:1-4

God presides in the great assembly;
    he renders judgment among the “gods”:

² “How long will you defend the unjust
    and show partiality to the wicked?
³ Defend the weak and the fatherless;
    uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
⁴ Rescue the weak and the needy;
    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Caring for the defenseless and needy was higher in God’s esteem than keeping the Mosaic Law, which often called for stoning if breached. But if the Law is kept perfectly by law keepers who are cold and heartless, if the law is not blended with mercy and compassion, God utterly rejects it all.

Isaiah 1:10-12, 16, 17:

Hear the word of the Lord,
    you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the instruction of our God,
    you people of Gomorrah!
¹¹ “The multitude of your sacrifices—
    what are they to me?” says the Lord.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
    of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
    in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
¹² When you come to appear before me,
    who has asked this of you,
    this trampling of my courts?...

"Wash and make yourselves clean.
    Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
    stop doing wrong.
¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice.
    Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
    plead the case of the widow.

Even if one does not care for the poor, God has designed the universe to generally bless those who do the right thing regarding the poor. Proverbs 19:17:

"Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,
    and he will reward them for what they have done."

There are many more, of course, but this is an essay, not a book.

The New Testament is just as adamant. Selfish people need not apply for real estate in the Good Place.

Matthew 25:31-46, but I’ll only put half of it, 41-46, here.

 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Diversity and Equality

There’s an overlap in these two concepts, although neither diversity nor equality were a thing in the first century. Romans favored Romans, Jews favored Jews, men favored men, some were slaves, some were aristocrats and everyone was to keep his place. Those below were to obey those above. There were no secretarial or store clerk jobs for women to help boost them to independence. In the area of prophecy, however, we see an active place for women in both testaments.

Yes, there were spies and prophetesses in the Hebrew Bible. The first famous female prophet was the sister of Moses. Miriam’s song can be found in Exodus 15. In Judges 4 and 5, Deborah judged Israel prophetically, and went to war with the warriors on the front lines. The words of her song were preserved in chapter 5. The prophetic words of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, are preserved in 1 Samuel. She expressed the heart of God in a song and prophesied that a king was imminent. And in the crisis of Jeremiah’s day, when Judah was under threat from Babylon, King Josiah sent his officers to the prophetess Huldah to hear a word from God about Judah’s fate.

In the NT, we hear about the four daughters of Philip the evangelist who had the gift of prophecy. There were men and women in the upper room when the Holy Spirit manifested with tongues of fire on the heads of all those there. Peter rightly preached that the event was the fulfillment of Joel 2:28, 29,

“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.
²⁹ Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

A passage that many miss because it is buried in the depths of Ezekiel 47:21-23.

²¹ “You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. ²² You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners residing among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. ²³ In whatever tribe a foreigner resides, there you are to give them their inheritance,” declares the Sovereign Lord.

Inclusion

The Mosaic Law was unyielding about Israelites marrying outside of their tribes. Nevertheless, there were two Gentile women who were included in the lineage of King David and even Jesus. One of them was a Moabitess, the heroine of the book of Ruth, who followed her mother-in-law to Israel when both husbands died. That was in spite of the fact that the Law barred all Moabites from joining the congregation due to past affronts during the Exodus. God blessed this little woman who may have expected a dubious reception in Naomi’s country.

There are many passages in the OT commanding us to show mercy to the stranger. The NT warns that some might be angels, (Heb. 13:2). The parable of the Good Samaritan does not specify who the victim in the ditch was. We don’t know his ethnicity or if he was a good person. We don’t know his skin color. He was a human being who needed lots of help, (Luke 10:35-37).

Finally, to shorten this post, I want to point out Isaiah 66:19-21. Gentiles from distant lands will come to proclaim the glory of the Lord. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. ²¹ And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the Lord.” Uncircumcised gentiles will be priests and ministers! Whooda thunk such a thing could be possible?

Conclusion

We need to take seriously the words of Jesus, “²¹ Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

Every single non-Native American person living in the US today is either an immigrant, or the descendant of an immigrant. There is no American genome to or blood type to poison. America was birthed by refugees who were all very tribal in their own ways. Catholics anathematized Baptists. Baptists thought the Wesleyans were heretics. The nation was divided over loyalty to the British crown versus joining the risky struggle for independence.

In the excellent book 1812, The War that Forged a Nation, Walter Borneman offers a quote from a proclamation that Gen. Andrew Jackson produced after the Battle of New Orleans:

“Praising the ‘undaunted courage, patriotism, and patience, under hardships and fatigues,’ of his troops, Jackson proclaimed: ‘Natives of different states, acting together, for the first time, in this camp; differing in habits and in language, instead of viewing in these circumstances the germ of distrust and division, you have made them the source of an honourable emulation, and from the seeds of discord itself have reaped the fruits of an honourable union.’” (p. 303 Kindle) Seeds of discord leading to an honorable union...beautifully stated. Let’s remember those words and the words on our money, in our passports, and on the seals of all three branches of government—E Pluribus Unum—“Out of many, one.”

After the bloody wars in Europe where countries swung from Catholic to Protestant and Christians killed Christians because they wouldn’t bend, the American Constitution wisely banned state religions. The new nation, peopled by immigrants of every ilk, arose to protect free speech and the right for all to worship as they please. That happy state of affairs did not banish all prejudice and did not offer equality to all citizens, but it did give America the room to grow. It is our birthright. It is rare and precious. It deserves our deepest respect and observance.

Petty, narrow-minded, self-interested politicians who stir up false religious fervor and hatred may get away with a lot here on earth, but we all die and we will all face the final judgment, and there will be no cocktails on yachts on that day.