Diversity is not Nice

I am so excited to join the Missio Alliance writing team! I have written for them before but now, I will be contributing to their blog monthly. You can find out more about them at their new website. My first post is up today titled, “Diversity is not Nice.”

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to speak at a women’s event at my church. The question I was asked to answer is, “Why does God call us to diversity?” Even looking at the question now causes me to sigh. This emotional response is because I believe that people in the church, at least my multi-ethic congregation, know the answer to that question. Some of us can even quote scripture and maybe tell a story or two about it, but there are still hurt feelings, unasked questions, topics we don’t address, a silent strolling of offensive posts by our so called “friends” on social media, and suddenly, we (the minority group) realize that “they” don’t know us well at all. Perhaps they have not even tried, that is what undergirds the sigh. It is the weariness of understanding that what God calls us to is quite clear, at least for those of us Jesus-loving, Bible-toting, Sunday morning worshipping, bridge building believers. But for some reason we don’t always have a passionate pursuit of diversity. We have simply gotten comfortable with our love of the idea of diversity.

Continue reading at Missio Alliance.