Hey White MAGA Christians, You Know DEI Was Jesus' Whole Point, Right?

So, DEI is the new “woke”: MAGA America’s default boogeyman-du-jour. It’s the latest convenient catch-all for Trump and his party to invoke at every opportunity as the scapegoat for crime, natural disasters, public health emergencies—and apparently, somehow, airplane crashes.And as with every phony threat and manufactured evil spewed into the ether by Republican leaders to manipulate the ignorant and bigoted; his rabid, cultic automatons rush to mindlessly regurgitate and manifest it—allowing them to bypass objective data, complex problems, and especially their own culpability in addressing societal ills.And sadly, among the most fierce and committed soldiers in assault on DEI are MAGA Evangelicals, primed for this culture war battle royale by decades of toxic preaching, years of Fox News poisoning, and Project 2025’s brazen theocratic ambitions carried around the country during Trump’s presidential campaign.Yet, the reality, is that diversity, equity, and inclusion aren’t just aspirations that any decent human being should support—they’re at the very heart of the life, teachings, and existence of Jesus. Christians fighting these things are rebelling against their supposed God.As he begins his public ministry in the Book of Luke in the New Testament, Jesus does so by reading the words of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, declaring his mission statement:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,because he has anointed meto proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisonersand recovery of sight for the blind,to set the oppressed free,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”The words are a clear declaration of a commitment to an equitable removing of the obstacles from the paths of those who are being held back and held under by their circumstances; by poverty and illness and subjugation. Jesus’ central stated ministry is the lessening of the gaps between the powerful and the powerless, a radical inclusion of those so often left out, an audacious expanding of the table of compassion to the widest, most diverse swath of humanity.The entire Gospel writers’ offerings are rooted in Jesus’ teachings on the “kingdom of God”: a new social order marked by the leveling of humanity, where, as he says, “the last will be first and the first will be last.” (Mat 19:29) In that counter-cultural, borderless, wall-defying spiritual territory, no human beings will be treated as inferior or unworthy of respect. All will have what they need to thrive.Obeying Jesus’ primary and nonnegotiable command “to love God and love your neighbor as yourself,” (Matt 11:37-39) is to become a passionate advocate for those with less than we do; to protect and defend the shalom of the other, to demand each person be given an unimpeded path to experience joy.In the third chapter of Luke’s writings, a crowd asks Jesus’ forerunner, John The Baptist how they are to respond to the generosity they have received from God, and John replies: ”Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” (Luke 3:11)Over and over in the Scriptures, Jesus reveals his heart for the poor, the marginalized, the foreigner, and the victims of inequity. He continually calls those who would emulate him to have their hearts renovated so that these people become those they too are burdened to care for. That’s why it’s a tragedy and straight-up heresy when Christians become gatekeepers of blessings.And perhaps the most ironic part of white, supposed followers of Jesus’ incessant attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion as ideas, is that theologically speaking, if not for the Gospel of good news for all humanity that Jesus brings—they themselves would have been excluded, permanently.In his letter to the Church in Galatia, pastor Paul writes that in Christ:There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (3:28)In other words (using the very Bible they claim adoration of and commitment to), every single white Evangelical, every MAGA Christian has been the beneficiary of an inclusion that they neither earned nor deserved: the essence of the Grace they allegedly place at the heart of their belief system. In their own faith story, they benefitted from an expansion that warmly welcomed-in diversity that was once excluded (of which they comprise), allowing them into the very religion they now weaponize against the poor, the oppressed, the outsider. God’s DEI program was delivered and incarnated in Christ.Waging war against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs is to choose the side of the oppressors, the power-holders, those born into wealth and privilege who would horde all they have. There is no way in hell or the Bible Jesus would be found making such choices.To champion an end to efforts ensuring that all human beings have equal access to opportunity, health, education, community, reveals an insidious racism, a narcissistic greed, and a contempt for difference—all of which Jesus preached and taught and lived and died pushing against.Christians opposing DEI are rejecting Jesus and disobeying God.That’s just the Gospel truth.The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe