Like-mindedness: The Christian response to DEI
I read the news and I am convinced we have lost our minds.
Individuals don’t know whether they are male or female, or even human. Transgenderism is running amok and close behind are the “furries”—people who think they are animals, or trans-species.
No sooner has my home state, Connecticut, waded into online sports betting than social agencies are warning it aggravates gambling addiction. Did the legislators not foresee this?
And what are we to do about COVID? Wear a mask or not? Get booster shots? How many? We have escalated from two shots to three and even four.
Confusion reigns.
“In a widening partisan divide, if we can’t agree that young girls being raped at school is an outrage, what can we agree on?” This is the question a writer for The Federalist posed about our national unresponsiveness to news of a skirt-clad boy assaulting a ninth grader in a girls’ bathroom in a Loudoun County, Virginia high school.
If we have not lost our minds, we certainly have jettisoned like-mindedness.
The heart of like-mindedness is the eye.
Americans are neither united nor like-minded about much of anything. Our states are red or blue, not the United States. Family once meant a husband, wife, and children; now “love makes a family”—whoever and however many that may be. We no longer pledge “one nation under God, indivisible” but embrace every religion under the guise of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI).
The indivisible is divided.
Can we recover?
We can, when we remember that thirteen colonies subscribed to the motto E Pluribus Unum—out of many, one—a tribute to both their diversity and their unity.
We can, when we heed the appeal of scripture.
Like-mindedness is a passion of the Apostle Paul. For example, the church in Philippi was a diverse congregation: Paul, a Jew, planted it; Gentiles grew it, and several prominent women tended it. The people were Greeks by birth and governed by Rome. Yet, Paul saw them capable of unison on three levels: as individuals, as a church body, and with God.
Individually with one another. Two women in the Philippian church, influential enough for Paul to call them out by name—Euodia and Syntyche—disputed some unknown matter and the apostle exhorted each, “be of the same mind”1.
Collectively, as the church. Paul said nothing would make him happier than to see the Philippian believers “with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”2 He added, “Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.“3
Spiritually, with God. He believed they could have “this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”4
Anything less than like-mindedness troubled Paul; divisiveness brought quick rebuke.
“I plead with you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”5
The apostle’s passion for one-mindedness grew from his encounter with Christ.
He began with strong convictions about true service to God and basked in Jewish supremacy. Israel had the true God, His covenants, His promises, His law, and His glory. The Jews were His chosen people; all others were dogs.6 For this reason, he ardently persecuted followers of Christ—they were not of the same mind.
Paul reveled, too, in his personal supremacy.
“If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”7
Such was the mind of Paul about God, himself, and the church when Jesus changed it. “Why are you persecuting Me?” the Lord asked when He intercepted Paul on his rounds of persecution to Damascus.8 The apostle spoke of his own experience when he wrote,
“Let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.”9 Paul had thought “otherwise” until God revealed the truth.
The history of our country and the experience of Paul affirm that diverse groups can be like-minded.
How do we recover this?
The heart of like-mindedness is the eye. Paul said, “We make it our aim to be well pleasing to [God].”10
He is restating what Moses told Israel on the exodus from Egypt to Canaan. “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes—[but] do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.”11
Like-mindedness begins with having an eye on God and His ways. Every one of us has opinions that divide us according to whose we like better. Unity becomes possible when we submit to the one true God and look to please Him. An eye for God tempers looking out for ourselves.
- Twelve tribes followed Moses and became the nation of Israel.
- Twelve disciples followed Jesus and became the church.
- On the Day of Pentecost, 3,000 “from every nation under heaven” believed Peter’s message and united in fellowship.
- Thirteen colonies, appealing to Nature’s God and their Creator, became the United States.
We will not breeze into this; there are headwinds that require resolve. Paul identified three actions.
Strive together. Paul uses a compound word that depicts a wrestling team—individuals in company with others of the same mind competing against a common opponent.
Esteem others. This is a call to command and lead, without browbeating. The key is the word, “others”. The one-minded leader is not a self-driven tyrant, imposing ideas but seeks to know what others have in mind and to unite them. Becoming like-minded takes humility.
Stand fast. To be one-minded with others does not mean giving ground, backing off, being a doormat. Standing fast as Paul describes requires as much energy as striving together and esteeming others. We need strength to hold ground in the face of forceful opposition and to reach like-mindedness with others. This strength derives from aligning with those of like faith and adhering to God’s revealed truth. Paul held fast, even to martyrdom. So must we.
E Pluribus Unum—out of many, one. For decades, this was the motto of the United States. For centuries, it has been the way of the church. Forever, it is the call of Christ.
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”12
Only in Christ, when we are like-minded with Him, will true diversity, equity and inclusion reign.
- Philippians 4:2
- Philippians 1:27
- Philippians 2:2, emphasis mine
- Philippians 2:5
- 1 Corinthians 1:10, emphasis mine
- See Romans 3:1-2, 9:3-5; Ephesians 2:11-12; Matthew 7:6, 15:26
- Philippians 3:4-6
- Acts 9:4
- Philippians 3:15
- 2 Corinthians 5:9
- Deuteronomy 12:8; 13:18
- John 17:20-21, emphasis mine