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Diversity is strength

This past weekend, I attended the multiculturalism festival in Rotary Park. It was great—a wonderful, colourful, fun and tasty celebration of our diversity. I have always thought that Cranbrook was a pretty homogeneous society, without a lot of diversity. But that’s changing, and I think it’s a good thing. A very good thing.
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This past weekend, I attended the multiculturalism festival in Rotary Park. It was great—a wonderful, colourful, fun and tasty celebration of our diversity. I have always thought that Cranbrook was a pretty homogeneous society, without a lot of diversity. But that’s changing, and I think it’s a good thing. A very good thing.

I was delighted to see booths from different countries and cultures—China, French Canadian, Japan, Kenya, Métis, United Kingdom, Dominican Republic and the Philippines. It was good to talk with the people at the booths, to learn from them and to expand my appreciation of different ways of doing things.

I also met some friends who shared my delight in the day. One suggested that I should write a column on what the Bible has to say about diversity.

My initial reaction was that the Bible doesn’t say much about diversity at all. After all, in the ancient world in which this library of books was written, diversity wasn’t a real issue. In ancient times, people didn’t travel from their own lands to go to another country. They stayed put, among their own—their own people, their own kin, in their own place. They might have been aware of their neighbours. And certaintly, Israel would have known about the more powerful nations around who conquered and occupied the land—primarily the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Romans.

In that kind of world, diversity wasn’t much of an issue. The poor peasants were more concerned about making it through each day.

That’s no longer true. These days, diversity is increasingly under attack in Europe, in the USA, and in Canada. Populist governments and leaders are using immigrants and “those who don’t look like us and who don’t fit in” as scapegoats for deeper ills in our society, and it’s finding fertile soil in the minds of people who are losing any sense of certainty. They want someone to blame, and the populist leaders are giving them lots of ammunition.

So does the Bible have anything to say about diversity at all? Well, in one sense, not really since the Bible is a creature of its time. The Bible didn’t drop down from heaven, written on tablets by God’s finger. The Bible was written by very human authors who were trying to find ways of describing how God was present in the world.

Therefore the Bible doesn’t contain a set of timeless truths. Rather, it teaches us how to think theologically in our time as the authors of that time tried to think theologically.

But … if we approach the Bible with this very specific question — “What does the Bible say about diversity?” — in mind, we can find the outlines of a way of thinking about the issue in a biblical and faithful way.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about the church as the “Body of Christ”. He says that the body is a complex organism made up of many different parts, and that each part is necessary for the body to function as a whole. He uses lovely rhetorical devices — “The eye can’t say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you’, or the head to the feet, ‘I don’t need you.’” The argument is quite clear—that diversity is beautiful and welcome and necessary. Paul completes his argument with the notion that if one part suffers, we all suffer. If one part is honoured, we rejoice together.

Imagine someone saying to the body, “You’re displaying excessive diversity!” That’s sheer nonsense … and it’s sheer nonsense in our society as well.

Here’s another example from the Old Testament. One of Israel’s ancient enemies was the kingdom of Assyria, with its capital city in Nineveh. Around the year 722 BC, Assyria conquered and utterly demolished Israel.

So how does the Bible talk about the Assyrians? Well that depends.

The prophet Nahum declares that God’s wrath will fall on Nineveh and its inhabitants. They are cursed, and there will be devastation, desolation and destruction. “See, I am against you,” says the Lord of hosts. In 612, the city of Nineveh was demolished. Many scholars date Nahum to just after that date.

The book of Jonah, on the other hand, written about 125 years later, has a different point of view. It tells the familiar story of the prophet sent to Nineveh to tell the residents that unless they repent, they would be wiped out. And — spoiler alert! — they repent, much to Jonah’s disappointment. They are not wiped out. They are saved.

Why the difference? Jonah reflects a later time, after the return from Exile, when the people had learned something about their God—that maybe the God of Israel cares for more than just the people of Israel. Even enemies are welcomed, and God embraces this kind of diversity.

There are other examples. When Solomon prays at the dedication of the new Temple in 1 Kings 8, it’s clear that foreigners are to be made welcome.

In John 10, Jesus says, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice.” There is great debate about what this means … but maybe it’s possible to interpret it so that it hints at welcoming diversity.

At this moment, the CFL is conducting a campaign called “Diversity is Strength”. “We know that our strength comes from diversity—be that of heritage, orientation, religion, ability, thought, and so much more … we’re thrilled to celebrate our diverse country, players, and fans.”

Those who protest against diversity, who tell us that we have a problem with “extreme diversity”, or who tell us that we need to build walls to keep foreigners out … well they’re just plain wrong. Diversity is a strength, and I for one am delighted to see a growing diversity in Cranbrook.

Rev. Yme Woensdregt is pastor at Christ Anglican Church in Cranbrook