Jesus' DEI Gospel

The noise is loud. So loud. Folks shout that DEI fights faith – that it hurts good Christians. We have it upside down. Dead wrong. The real heart shock? What some call Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is the very beat of Jesus' Kingdom come. Right there. In the dirt and dust of the New Testament.

Think on his life. Jesus walked straight past the rich, the proud, the safe insiders. He sat with tax cheats. Healed the sick no one touched. Spoke deep truth to a lone woman at a well – a double outcast. He called the poor, the meek, the peace makers, blessed. Not later. Now. This was God's Kingdom breaking in. Not a vague hope. A lived fact. Rooted in radical welcome. True belonging. Fairness poured out like cool water in a dry land. He saw the pushed aside – the sick, the foreigner, the shamed woman – and said "You matter most here." That's divine justice. Not a side thought. The main event.

Recall the tale of the Good Man. A hurt Jew left to die. Who stops? Not his kin. A hated foe. A Samaritan. Jesus held him up. The true neighbor. The one who sees need, not tribe. That’s Kingdom work. Inclusion in the raw. Or the bold faith of that foreign mom – the one from Syro-Phoenicia? Pushed back at first, yes. Yet her fierce love won the day. Her child healed. Her place affirmed. Jesus saw her. Valued her plea. Even when his own men grumbled. That’s equity in flesh and blood.

Now look close. Some use Christ's name to rip down DEI efforts. Call it bias. A threat. It’s a cruel irony. A deep cut. They wield the cross like a club against the very souls Jesus lifted high. The orphan. The widow. The stranger at the gate – those he named first in God's care. To fight DEI, draped in holy cloth, isn't just a misstep. It's a direct hit on the Gospel's core. It swaps God's wide feast for a locked door. Turns mercy into a weapon.

The Kingdom table Jesus set? It groaned under the weight of diverse souls. Fishermen next to zealots. Women funding his mission. The clean and the unclean, side by side. All fed. All seen. All told they belong. That’s the blueprint. Not some vague wish. The real, hard work of love. To stand against this holy call – this deep drive for fair welcome, true place, shared worth – is to stand against the King himself. It turns the good news inside out. Makes it small. Mean. A thing Jesus wept over. The noise may roar, but the truth sings clear: His Kingdom is DEI in holy fire.