The current Administration in Washington appears to revel in dismantling DEI programs in as many aspects of American life as it can get its hands on— legitimately or not. Other conservative leaning politicians and leaders are also extolling the necessity of dismantling DEI programs. Embedded in the rhetoric is the notion that the smartest, most capable, most able of everything and anything are straight white men.

If the New Testament is to be believed and followed— especially the Gospels— it’s hard to imagine that Jesus would approve of the removal of DEI programs. How do I know this? It actually doesn’t take much digging into the Holy Book to appreciate that Jesus was (and is) all about inclusion, casting the net wider than one’s small, safe and predictable community, and beyond the realm of men. Let’s consider a few examples:

1. The “confession” that Jesus is the Messiah belongs to Peter in Matthew, Mark and Luke. In John, it belongs to Martha: “She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (John 11:27)
2. One of Jesus’s most well-known parables, the Good Samaritan, features the good and selfless work of a man from one community/group who reaches out to a man from another community/group who is in desperate need of help. These two communities/groups despised each other in the first century.
3. The Samaritans got another good shout out in John, when Jesus engaged in a fruitful— and nonjudgmental— conversation with a shunned Samaritan woman.
4. In the Great Commission, in the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus encouraged his followers to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19)
5. And, not to be forgotten, the news of Resurrection was given to Mary of Magdala, according to all four of the canonical Gospel writers.
6. Finally, as a man from the Middle East, Jesus himself would have been more brown than white.

Jesus was generally known for hanging around with those who lived on the margins of society— tax collectors, prostitutes, etc. He also healed the sick (in body and/or spirit), touched lepers, and gave sight to the blind. In one of his more famous sermons, he lifted up the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the mournful and claimed that they were blessed. Most, if not all, of such people would be called, by the current President, “losers.”

Where are the so-called Christians in the Administration, the ones who ought to know— especially given the jewelry they sport around their necks— that the Christian faith is an inclusive faith, and that those who practice the faith are encouraged to be inclusive people, breaking down barriers, rather than putting up still more? I am not one who would claim that the United States is a Christian country— or ought to be— but the White House claims a special affinity for and to Christianity. Clearly, only in word.

It is simply appalling to witness the dismantling of programs and policies that have sought to put to good use the many different kinds of people who make up this ragtag nation of immigrants with grand visions of the “land of the free and home of the brave.” By doing so, this Administration, as well as others who follow the same policies, are rejecting some of the most essential qualities of the movement that Jesus Christ fashioned and inspired.