The great god of diversity
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
A parish describes itself this way on its web site:
We are an urban parish whose vitality springs from the diversity of the congregation.
This sort of statement is de rigueur in the mainline churches today. No mention of the Holy Spirit, no reference to God, no identification of Jesus Christ who said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” The Church’s one foundation is no longer Jesus Christ her Lord, but Diversity. It has become ludicrous; I have been in more than one parish where the congregation proudly proclaims its “diversity” when the only diversity that can be seen with the naked eye is that a few parishioners do not have grey hair. It is all part of the ubiquitous tendency to remove agency from God and give it to the congregation.
Moreover, this emphasis on diversity illustrates the way in which the mainline churches have allowed themselves to become groups of political constituencies each claiming its rights.
Apropos of this:
An article by Michael Tomasky (American Prospect, link below) is the talk of the nation right now. It is closely related to problems not only in the Democratic Party but in the Church. The “liberal” seminaries and the mainline-church decision-making bodies have the same problem as the Democratic Party: “rights” and “diversity” have become gods while the “common good” is neglected.
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=11424
