Diversity, equity, and inclusion martyrdom has no place in the world or the Church

Have you heard of the corporate craving for the sweet spot of diversity, equity and inclusion? My husband, a straight white man, just doesn’t fit the mould. Accomplishing 30 years of skill in his profession, he has a brilliant reputation, is a hard worker and loves what he does. Still, in his mid 40s it’s become stunningly apparent he’s been born in the wrong skin, on the wrong side of the woke resistance against common sense and practical history.

He’ll just have to check his white privilege at the door and his black wife and mixed children have to suck it up in the name of inclusivity. Did I forget to mention, he’s the white husband of a black wife with four mixed race children? It shouldn’t matter; I truly hate that it does.

This goes completely contrary to how I was raised as a Gen Xer in America. We were part of the generation who would (twice) elect the first black president.Nothing at the time was more passé in popular culture than racism. We were meant to judge by character, not skin colour. My childhood was Sally Ride in space and Oprah dominating  day time television. It was drilled into our psyche; all are created equal; good, hard work pays off, race and gender aside.

He’ll just have to check his white privilege at the door and his black wife and mixed children have to suck it up in the name of inclusivity.

Likewise, we are taught in the Bible, God has no favourites. We are all created in his image with intrinsic value. Paul writes  in Colossians of God’s church: “In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.”

Scripture aside, as a growing sector of society including members of the church seem to believe, the harm my husband’s specific ancestors may hypothetically have perpetrated against non-whites and women, has earned him a taste of his own discrimination. An eye for an eye, after all. Yet, is any people group on the planet free from sin? Is there some sort of litmus test one should take to make sure they’re racially non-white enough to do their job?

I don’t want my surgeon, pilot or child’s school-teacher hired based on their ancestors. I don’t care how virtuously it casts their hiring bodies. How can we be truly inclusive, leaving whole swaths of the population out of the running based on how God ordained their ancestors and gender? Or does therein lie the problem?  As Christians, we believe the Gospel. We are designed by a Creator, falling short of his plan because of indwelling sin. Not one of us is righteous. But God was so rich in mercy, and loved us so much, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It is only by His grace we have been saved.

The woke agenda habitually denies both the reality of indwelling sin in all people AND the grace and forgiveness available in Christ through repentance

So there we have it. The woke agenda habitually denies both the reality of indwelling sin in all people AND the grace and forgiveness available in Christ through repentance, leaving our current society blind, dumb and hopelessly denying the triumphs of our shared history. African slavery in the US and Britain has been abolished for many decades, through the trailblazing work of Christians, INCLUDING straight, white, male ones.

Why would we want to hide this light of history under a bushel when we should be spotlighting the grace and power of God’s capacity to overcome centuries of evil through the changed hearts of white abolitionists like John Newton? The DEIers will claim I have a white savior complex, overlooking the irony of dictating who a free black woman in 2023 should worship, but I’m  happy to correct them. My Savior is bronze skinned, woollen haired and Jewish.