Thoughts on Diversity

So the church I was worried about turned out to be run by someone who is godly and competent, and apparently qualifies to take on the job of running a church multicultural center.  This is a good thing. 

The only reason I initially freaked out is because I have had some rather bad experiences with the current ideas about what is often called "diversity".  I'll agree that treating someone solely of the basis of race, sex, age, etc., is a bad idea, but the way it's being taught in this culture leaves a lot to be desired.  

Let's start with this fact: No two people are alike.  You've got men and women, each with their own personality and looks.  People may have a similar body pattern (I've observed this), but no one has the same personality or looks. 

With that in mind, let's look at how the issue of diversity is handled in our culture today. 

Kids are taught from an early age to accept other people regardless of any differences.  This is all good and well.  However, as the kids grow up and move on from preschool and kindergarten to grade school on up, the tune slowly changes from "Accept other people despite their differences" to "White person-Bad, Minority person-Good". 

We have all read about the troubles minority groups have faced in the past (slavery, discrimination, lynching, etc.).  It used to be that white supremacy was one of the chief vices plaguing our country.   Nowadays, you can't even say something bad about a black person without being labeled a racist.  

Personal Experience: I had a very incompetent teacher for sophomore English.  She deduced that the theme connecting all the stories we were reading was intolerance.  I was already aware of the stupidities of "tolerance" as it is taught today.  In this particular English class, I got the full force of it (I'm still mad at my teacher for that).  She gave us a packet on The Laramie Project.  Apparently, in 1991 two guys murdered a homosexual man in Wyoming.  This sparked quite a bit of debate.  People were shouting "Oh, he was killed for being homosexual; oh it was a hate crime, blah, blah, blah."  This packet clearly left a lot to be desired.  It was riddled with inaccuracies about prejudice, about Fred Phelps, the man who ran around carrying stupid signs about the murder victim in Hell, and was had more biases than the average politician (exaggerated for effect).  I found out later on that the victim's murderers were thugs in the first place and at the time were high on meth.  So that was not so much a "hate crime" and more of an ordinary mugging; the victim just happened to be a homosexual. 
              The teacher gave us a project on "tolerance" and had us go to this website on the subject.  My dad looked over this website and found that there were more inaccuracies and lies on that website alone than I have ever come across in my twenty-one years; rivaled only by the incredibly stupid and inaccurate piece of junk known as my Sociology textbook from last summer.  For example, one of the things the website suggested to become more tolerant of others was to "Increase my circle of friends".  Whoever made this site clearly doesn't understand that most people don't make friends for a little more "diversity" in their portfolio.  And most people have at least only one or two close friends.  They may have a group of friends, but will only have a close bond with one of them.  Therefore, "Increase my circle of friends" is not very sound advice.  And making friends with someone who's black just because he's black is not a good way to go about this. In fact, it's reverse racism.
          Another thing this lame excuse of a website suggested was to "Create a tolerance website".  My dad said that doing so would be preaching to the choir.  His reason was simple: "Are those idle thrill-seeker going to visit your website?"  No one goes online to look for advice on how to become more "tolerant".  They go online to spend hours playing RPGs and watch silly videos.  They're not going to be interested in reading about "tolerance" at all.
          
How does one handle diversity?  It's hard.  Almost two centuries of prejudice have left many people, black, white, etc., with feelings of resentment.  Everyone resents someone.  And to get past this requires work.  And to get rid of it is rough.  What is really more important is who the person is, not what the person is.  And no, being more "tolerant" does NOT mean condoning sin.  All I can say is the best way to handle it is to love that person as yourself, even when their behavior offends you.  Tell them that you love and respect them, but that you don't approve of immoral or improper behavior.  And do it in such a way as to bring glory to God's name.