It's the start of Black History Month and I'm reminded of a conversation I had in grad school. My work supervisor invited me to lunch with of few of his friends. The conversation of affirmative action came up, and the comment was made "I wouldn't want a doctor who got in on affirmative action operating on me." The table seemed in general agreement. I responded "Even if they got into school on affirmative action, it doesn't get them through the training. They still have to make it through on ability." I thank God for giving a clear, simple response and courage to share it. It seemed everyone was reconsidering the point.
There' a lot of talk about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion lately. The general thought seems to be that it's a way to put people into positions who couldn't make it on ability. But if you've ever been through DEI training you realize that's not what it is about. In my experience DEI looks at discovering ability where you might overlook it. You might overlook someone because you mistake cultural or even personality differences for inability. Prejudices can also bias you against candidates or supporting your current coworkers. DEI attempts to educate so that bias doesn't override good decision making. In some cases it standardizes merit-based hiring to ensure candidates are qualified and not hired due to bias.
Of course it's not perfect. Nothing in this world ever is. But if you're a Christian like me and the idea of more inclusive workplaces bothers you I ask you to consider the following texts.
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3:28
In the church we are called to be united with those who are different from us. This is not a shallow unity where we have a common faith but keep to our own. We are to be "one," a concept that is used for the deepest relationships in the Bible.
"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people," - Revelation 14:6
To those who are outside of that unity "in Christ Jesus" we are called to take the gospel to without partiality or discrimination. The kingdom of heaven will be made up of people of "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." If you're finding yourself uncomfortable with people of different languages, cultures, or color being given positions consider that in the kingdom of heaven all are to be joint-heirs with Christ. If you're uncomfortable with them here, you'll find no comfort in heaven.