Unity Through Diversity

I heard a discussion on the radio yesterday about the division between black and white churches in America today. I didn’t get to hear all of the discussion but what part I did hear troubled me. The statement was made that the most segregated hour in America is on Sunday morning, and callers were arguing that this problem must be remedied in order to achieve the unity that the Christian body should have.

The reason this is troubling is because it reflects a view of Christianity that is present in our culture today that is not only false, but is used as an argument against Christianity. People who disagree with Christianity based on this premise refer to Christianity as an “iron mold,” a cultural stamp that forces everyone to live their lives the same way. In other words, Christianity takes away cultural identity and pushes its adherents into the “Christian mold.” Christianity then becomes a narrow-minded way of seeing the world through an ethnocentric lens where everyone, regardless of their culture, should conform to the “Christian” way of life.

These arguments stem from a gross misunderstanding of what the Bible says about unity within the body of Christ. Christian unity does not mean that everyone is the same, nor does it mean that everyone worships the same way. This is what the callers I heard failed to understand. To say that blacks and whites must worship together in order to be unified not only misunderstands unity, but it flies in the face of the gospel, limiting it to a specific culture.

Paul is very clear when he writes to the Ephesians that unity within the body of Christ is achieved through diversity. In the first six verses of chapter four he explains that the basis for Christian unity is Christ and his teachings. We are unified because of what Christ has done for us and because of what we believe. However, verses 7-12 talk about the diversity that comes through Christ. Christ equips us all for different things, and uses our differences to achieve the best possible functioning of the body. The body works because we’re not all arms, and the gospel is universal because there’s no cultural mold that we must fit into.

It’s these cultural differences that separate us on Sunday mornings. It’s not that we aren’t unified because we don’t fit the same mold, but rather we are unified because the gospel has reached across cultural barriers. Serving and worship God looks different in China than in Nigeria because the gospel is universal, and that is one of the greatest arguments for Christianity. No other religion on earth has ever achieved the global presence and diversity that Christianity has by being able to cross cultures and adapt to meet people where they are. Other religions are tied to specific cultures inherently because humans cannot recreate what God has already done through Christ.

Let me be clear though, there are divisions in Christianity that need to be repaired, and racial unity is one of them. But being brought together in love across races is not the same thing as giving up your cultural identity to conform to another culture’s standard of worship. These differences are not divisions, but they are a picture of the universality of the gospel that comes from a Savior who reaches to all types of people, and a faith that transcends humanity.