Drowning in DEI

DIVERSITY IN A DIVIDED WORLD

The year is 2003. Finding Nemo was just released, Apple launched the third-generation iPod, and the U.S. mourned the loss of all seven astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. Maybe it’s the year you were born. It’s also the year the U.S. Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger ruled that it was constitutional for race to be one factor in the college admissions process. But let’s back up for a second. 

DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) was in the news a lot in America earlier this year. If you eventually turned a deaf ear to it and now you’re like, “DE-what?” it’s understandable. DEI was created with good intentions, but recent events should make us question if it has grown into something it was never meant to become. We’re not here to say whether DEI is right or wrong. It’s not that simple of an issue. But what we will say is that it isn’t working. The disunity this issue has brought our country is another reason we can look around and think, surely this isn’t the way things are supposed to be.  

In 2023, the Supreme Court banned race-based college admissions, which upset many. The Court said judging students by race violates equal protection because it assesses students based on unchangeable characteristics, things about themselves they didn’t choose, and that admissions should focus on individual merit. Supporters worry that race-based policies may unintentionally label students as needing extra help, even when they’re fully qualified. Interestingly, a 2022 study found that only 7% of the public believe that race should be a factor when considering college admission.¹ 

Although it’s been around since the 1960s, DEI has been all over the news again since President Trump’s executive orders earlier this year, which mandated the shutdown of federal DEI programs and sparked protests nationwide. Large companies like Walmart, Target, and LEGO scaled back initiatives and quietly removed inclusive products, upsetting the very customers these efforts were meant to support. Colleges also scaled back programs and renamed offices to maintain compliance and funding, often unsure of what even counted as DEI. There you have it, clear as mud. We are drowning in DEI. 

A DEI DISASTER 

The Atlantic published an interesting piece in March 2025 titled “DEI Has Lost All Meaning.” The author writes, “Americans have developed a bad habit of deploying DEI as if it has a clear meaning. The left’s elites praise DEI. The right’s elites attack DEI. Citizens debate DEI on social media. But often, they are talking about different things. Almost as often, they don’t notice they are talking about different things. These failures to communicate flow from the fact that DEI has no universal or broadly shared definition.^2”  

Those opposed think of it this way: If everyone is special, is anyone special? They see DEI as unfair, politically driven, and more divisive than inclusive. They fear that when DEI initiatives prioritize demographics over character, talent, and proven qualifications, people might be placed in roles for which they are not well-suited. The National Football League (NFL) has been taken as an example. If teams picked players by race instead of skill, the game would collapse. The NFL is exciting because the best athletes play. And it just so happens that those best athletes are predominantly non-white. ³ 

ONE QUIRKY DIVERSE WORLD 

It’s a peculiar cultural moment, for sure. The one thing’s clear: we humans have a funny way of taking something good and making it evil and polarizing, every single time. What started as a good thing to bring unity became a divisive topic and a political weapon. If we loved each other the way Jesus told us to, we wouldn’t need DEI. He gave us clear instructions, not to mention His life as an example, for how to love people without partiality, regardless of how they treat us (Matthew 5:44). 

Biblical Christianity recognizes that we all have differences because we were each created for a specific function (1 Corinthians 12). Diversity among humans (physically and otherwise) was created by God! Our unique looks, cultures, and personality quirks keep the world both interesting and beautiful. Beyond that, we as believers make up one body in Christ (the Church). God does this crazy thing where He brings us all together from all walks of life to show people who don’t know Him what He’s like. Christians are united in a deeply intimate way the world will never understand unless they’re a part of it.  

In the church, our differences are recognized and utilized to serve others, but our differences are not glorified; He is. We don’t have to make extra attempts to be inclusive. Everyone is invited from the start! We are seen by God for who we really are and loved perfectly in spite of it. And that causes us to want to change. To not stay the angry or lonely or judgmental person we once were. We want to grow, to listen, to forgive. With God’s help, we can love with a better, truer love than the world ever could. If we look at our culture right now, it’s clear that the world doesn’t know how to love each other very well. And all the DEI initiatives in the world are merely failed attempts. 

Now, back to where we started: Grutter v. Bollinger. The case was in the Court for two and a half months and was a close ruling that won 5-4. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was (now infamously) quoted as saying, “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest [in student body diversity] approved today.”⁴ 

As we near 2028, that 25-year mark, we’re posed with the same question we were asking in 2003: Are we at the point where equal opportunity has arrived, or do we still have miles to travel? Regardless of whether DEI is the golden child or the banished child, it doesn’t change how we should treat people. It’s obvious, really. We’re all longing for a place where people from “every tribe, and tongue, and nation” (Revelation 7:9) come together and live harmoniously, united in mission, and loving each other perfectly. It sounds almost like… Heaven. 

¹pewresearch.org/fact-sheet/topic-affirmative-action-in-college-admissions/

²gotquestions.org/diversity-equity-inclusion-DEI.html

³theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/dei-buzzword-debate-harms/681882/

⁴gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/publications/was-justice-oconnor-right-race-and-highly-selective-college-admissions-in-2