Christ in You

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (II Corinthians 6:14)

          In the editorials this morning, someone wrote to protest that the 120 women who dressed in white for the State of the Union Address were not marching in lockstep under the command of Nancy Pelosi. We were instructed to look at the diversity involved, there were white women, Latinas, African American women…. The author went on to disparage the Republicans as lacking in diversity, being a sea of white men. Did the editorial’s author contacted these individuals to find out how they wanted to be identified? Are we to judge people by the color of their skin? Whites need not apply? Are we to judge people based on our assumptions about their genitalia? Is this not racism? Is this not sexism? Happenstance of birth defines a person?
          On the other hand, Christianity teaches that for those who are in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female. What matters is Christ. To some, this seems scandalous. “Diversity” demands that we focus on the paint job and plumbing, on the brand of the car regardless of the fact that it has the same design as the car manufactured by another company. All of those superficialities add up to diversity? It does if diversity isn’t the ad offered in a philosophical bait-and-switch con.
          Scripture rejects this superficiality. What matters is not what color one’s skin is, in what heritage one was raised, or one’s gender. What matters is whether one is alive in Christ, or dead in sin. To the racist, all that matters is one’s race. To the sexist, all that matters is one’s gender. To God, all that matters is “Christ in you.”