Let me begin with a few foundational statements:  

1)  Diversity is a growing reality in our city, county, and country.  

2)  This diversity extends to every part of life: ethnicity, culture, worldview, values, appearance, ethics, etc.   

3)  Diversity is not a virtue; it is not an end in itself, in that we cannot make a statement that "diversity is always good."

4)  Diversity is praised at many points in the Bible:  the variety in the natural world is a glory to God (Genesis 1; Psalms); God's ultimate kingdom is praised for having people from every toungue and nation (Revelation); diversity is present in the spiritual gifts that God gives (1Corinthians 12) and Christ brings together many different types of people in the Church (Galatians 3, Ephesians and Colossians 3).

What do these things mean for Christians?

1)  Diversity is a reality. We can ignore it, we can be in denial about it or we can even fight it. But none of this will change the reality. We need to wake up to it and address it if we are to understand our own American culture.

2)  The comprehensiveness and complexity of our diverse world is what makes understanding it difficult sometimes. We are surrounded by so many viewpoints, values and customs every day that it becomes hard to assimilate all of this and even know where to start in our understanding.

3)  That diversity is not a virtue does not mean that it is bad. What it means is that we must look for ways in which diversity may or may not be virtuous. What I mean by this is that if I were to say, "Our workplace should be diverse" I must say it knowing that it lacks ethical force. My listener should still wonder, "Why should your workplace be diverse?" So I would have to add reasons, "My workplace should be diverse because diversity will provide a fresh mix of perspectives, give minorities a chance they might not have had otherwise, obey a law etc." Diversity might be done out of love, cross-cultural understanding or economic pragmatism for instance, but it makes little sense to promote it for its own sake.

Faced with diversity as a complex reality we must decide how we will address it in our personal and social lives. Do we ignore it as irrelevant?  Do we hold it up the ultimate end-all of virtue? Or do we fight it as something to be feared or destroyed? The fact that diversity is very real makes the first option a mere delusion. The fact that diversity is not an end in itself makes the 2nd option somewhat absurd. And they are all thrown out as options because of what we believe as Christians about diversity.

4) The diversity that the Bible describes in the church is a deep,  rich gift. We do not do it for its own sake; we do not do it just because it is a reality in our world. We do it because it is a reality of God's Kingdom and a result of the grace that he extends to each and every human being. God reconciles each person to himself; because of this he then calls us and gives us strength to reconcile to one another. As Christians we come from different places but we have only one cornerstone as our foundation (Ephesians 2:20-21), and that is Jesus Christ. We are adopted by Jesus into the family of God. And like a family we may not always get along, we may have conflict, but we are called to be united in love for God and one another.

This is what diversity means for the Christian. That when we open our eyes to the reality of our diverse world we hear 2 clear calls in scripture in response. One is that we are to overcome our differences to be united to other Christians. And the 2nd is that when we are called to "love our neighbor"  we are called to do so unconditionally - we are not just called to love those that look, talk and think like we do. We are called to love whomever we encounter. And to fulfill that great commandment we must dive into relationships with the myriad people with whom we live and work and fellowship. Even go out of our way to do so! Then we are living into the reality of God's Kingdom, in which we join with the angels who sing praises to Jesus Christ because his blood "purchased for God members of every tribe and language and people and nation. [He] has made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God." Revelation 5:9-10  Now that is a diversity worth celebrating.