DEI in Churches Has Evangelicals Furious – Here’s Why

A large and growing number of evangelicals express indignation at the idea that white or white dominant multiethnic churches might seek to be intentionally welcoming to black congregants.  For example, in response to a conference speaker suggesting that churches should create a sense of belonging for minorities before they believe, one well followed Christian social media influencer asserts that ‘evangelical DEI rolls onward, merely rebranded as “belonging”.

What does it mean to be intentionally welcoming to black congregants?  It can mean many different things to different churches but primarily it is about being more inclusive.  The church I attend, like so many other evangelical churches, had a long history of intentionally making white congregants feel comfortable and welcome in our Sunday morning experience.  We were careful to avoid topics of race, justice and unity in the body of Christ.  Our worship music didn’t include songs of lament, or anything that would connect us with the life experiences of people of color.  And you could be confident that there would be no expression of empathy with black congregants who were experiencing pain when unarmed black men in the local community were shot and killed by police.  For our church, being welcoming meant changing these habitual responses to be more inclusive.  

What is the central objection to churches adapting their approach to be more welcoming to black congregants?  Why does this intentionality elicit a strong, visceral, negative reaction from so many evangelicals?  The common criticism I hear on social media directed at our deliberateness is that the Bible teaches that we should be colorblind, treating everyone the same.  This is based on a misappropriation of Galatians 3:28 where Paul says there is neither Jew nor Greek.  What is curious is that this verse is never quoted in opposition to churches having separate programs for men and women, or building cultural intelligence and customizing our response to congregants who are immigrants.  Is it only when black congregants are the targets of our cultural intelligence and customized love that people get agitated?

While the general idea of customizing our actions to be welcoming to black congregants generates indignation, when I discuss it on social media, the central flash point is our deliberate intent to raise up leaders of color.  This has been labeled as showing favoritism to black congregants who aren’t Biblically qualified.  But what I’ve learned through our efforts to raise up black leaders is that such deliberateness doesn’t necessarily mean lowering qualifications.  Our previous lack of black leadership was the result of our favoring the white congregants whom most of us knew better.  When we became deliberate about removing racial favoritism from our personal relationships our church leadership started to reflect the racial diversity of our congregation.

I often hear James 2:9 misappropriated to claim that the Biblical concept of non-partiality precludes us from customizing our actions when black congregants become a large part of a congregation.  But what is non-partiality?  The Bible teaches treating people with fairness and seeing everyone as having equal value, bearing the image of God.  Biblical fairness does not preclude the need for customized treatment in all cases.  At times equal concern is most constructively expressed through customized treatment.  Paul tells us “those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.” 1 Corinthians 12:22-23.

I was having a breakfast discussion with a long-time family friend at the local Panera.  We were discussing this ministry and our essay that compares the love that parents have for their adopted children of color with how our church became intentional about treating our black congregants as having equal value.  As I talked about how we learned to eat with chop sticks, celebrate Chinese New Year, intentionally develop relationships with several Chinese families and seek out a community where the school district has a large portion of non-white students, my friend nodded in approval.  He understood why these actions were important to our daughters developing healthy self-esteem and believing they were loved.  But when the conversation turned to sharing how we did similar things in our church, to make our black congregants feel welcome and valued, he had a visceral reaction, stated, “that’s political”, and ended the conversation.  Is it a virtue for a Christian parent to adapt their love when their family includes children of color but merely political when they adapt their love when their church family includes a large portion of black congregants?

So how did we get to this point?  How did this colorblind ideology get such a foothold in evangelicalism?  In the 1970s, evangelicalism avoided topics of race and justice to attract Americans who wanted to flee communities that were becoming racially diverse.  Church leaders thought they could use our racial bias to grow the kingdom without nurturing racial hierarchies.  Many of those leaders now realize they were wrong.  It is important that we understand how we got here if we are going to chart a new path forward based on a new understanding of Jesus’ character and teachings.

We invite you to attend our free academy where we explore the biblical solutions to the perception that we’ve brought the racial hierarchies of society into our churches.