Diversity

I am reading a book called "Why the Rest hates the West" by Meic Pierce. I am only into the part where he is laying the groundwork for the rest of the book, but the book brings up a lot of really interesting things that are not necessarily limited to the thesis of the book.

Here is a great quote:

"This is the irony and the emptiness of 'multiculturalism.' 'Tolerant' 'open' Western cosmopolitans can get along with anyone, anywhere, on one condition: that they be Westernized cosmopolitans like themselves."

This makes me think of the supposed desire to have 'diversity' in churches, companies and organizations that I have been a part of over the years. In almost every instance, the love of diversity ends when "the diversity" has a desire to be diverse in ways and places deeper than the leadership can handle.

One example that I think about is the desire of many churches to welcome postmodern people (yeah I know postmodern is a very tired word). Those churches are happy to install multimedia equipment, light some candles and say a creed every now and then, but it is too much to change the basic leadership structure to allow them to flourish and grow into the church. The church, in reality, wants diversity on the surface, but doesn't really want it to change how things operate.

If we are truly to seek out diversity, we need to realize that people are more different than they appear on the surface and that we are not truly championing their diversity unless we allow their difference to invade the entire depth of our organization.

Mike