By Tyler McKenzie
The Collapse of Public Support for DEI
On January 7th, 2025, flashing a $900,000 watch, the new-look CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, released a six-and-a-half-minute video detailing significant changes to Facebook and Instagram’s content moderation policies. He basically admitted they had been censoring the free expression of their users. He promised to correct these mistakes by: (1) replacing third-party fact-checking, (2) lifting restrictions on topics previously censored like immigration and gender identity, and (3) moving their trust and safety teams from California to Texas. Then on January 10th, Meta announced it would be eliminating their DEI division, canceling their equity and inclusion programs, and reassigning their Chief Diversity Officer.
In 2020, the murder of George Floyd took place about ten minutes from Target’s headquarters. In response, their leadership pledged substantial efforts to advance racial equality. This was in addition to Target’s participation in LGBTQ advocacy. In 2023, CEO Brian Cornell praised these new DEI efforts for fueling sales and improving employee engagement. Then on January 24th, 2025, less than two years later, Target announced that they would be walking back their DEI commitments and partnerships. Quite the 180-degree turn.
While Meta and Target have made a lot of noise, many others in corporate America have followed suit. Walmart, John Deere, and McDonald’s all made public announcements they will be retreating from DEI policies. This New York Times article details how companies like Live Nation, Adobe, Johnson & Johnson, and Uber have changed their internal language. This article names public universities like UNC-Chapel Hill and Colorado who are changing their curricular requirements or scrubbing their websites in response to President Trump’s new executive orders. Noteworthy is the NCAA’s decision to comply with Trump’s ban of biological men from women’s sports, a reversal on their previous stance.
On Trump’s first day in office, he issued Executive Order 14151 “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” This was in response to heavy-handed efforts by the Biden administration to bake DEI into America’s most important institutions. Some suggest the sweeping language in this order is what has struck fear in so many. Others say the backlash against DEI captured momentum back on June 29th, 2023, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions.
I could go on with the examples, but you get the point. DEI seems to have suddenly lost its shine. The social benefits are evaporating. The structures of public support have flipped. It is important to note that some companies like Goldman Sachs and Costco have held their ground, but these examples feel few and far between.
Where did DEI go wrong?
In a word? Overreach. I was recently in a conversation with a Christian mentor who is outspoken about his political progressivism. We have worked together the past few years to advocate for diversity and boundary-crossing love in my church. However, he lamented the fact his child had to leave their job at a Fortune 500 company because they believed they would never get another promotion based on company DEI goals.
At some point, there was a failure by many to distinguish between common sense and radical ideologies. It’s one thing to help disadvantaged groups get a seat at the table. It’s another thing to allow biological men to win championships in women’s sports. It’s one thing to invest in the next generation of Black leaders and businesses after our sordid history of discrimination. It’s another thing to set admissions quotas that privilege one racial group at the expense of another. It’s one thing to do payroll analysis to ensure men and women are getting paid fairly for doing the same jobs. It’s another thing to advocate for DEI accommodations in the military that put lives at risk. It’s one thing to police hate speech, discipline bullies, and encourage majority groups to listen to minority experiences. It’s another thing to enforce speech codes that unnecessarily shame or silence well-meaning members of these majority groups.
“Straight, cisgender, white, Christian men are not allowed to speak about this!” I have heard this sentiment more than once. The idea is that your lived experience either empowers you with authority if you are part of a marginalized group or disqualifies you from authority if you aren’t. It’s the principle of intersectionality. Those who stand at more intersections of marginalization have more authority to speak. Encouraging the privileged majority to listen has led to a lot of good, but many people have seen it go too far. An ad hominem fallacy occurs when someone rejects or criticizes another’s point of view based on non-relevant personal characteristics rather than on the merits of their argument. The more logical fallacies deployed in a debate, the quicker the debate devolves into frustration.
The problem is that as the pendulum swings away from the left back toward common sense, it seems like many on the right are determined to make the same mistake in opposition of DEI. DEI advocates lost their cultural ascendancy because they were unable to distinguish between initiatives that were more and less reasonable. It looks like the anti-DEI wave is going to make the same mistake on the opposite extreme.
What does a uniquely Christian approach to DEI look like?
I believe that the words diversity, equity. and inclusion have value for Christians. There is a uniquely Christian approach to DEI that can serve as a third way amid all the cultural warring and political turmoil. I want to offer four irreducible minimums regarding DEI that all Christians might agree on, so that we have a common ground starting point for conversation.
Christians do not ebb and flow in an effort to chase the dollar or public approval. We stay grounded in truth.
To watch all these companies flip on DEI after their bold proclamations in 2020 is revolting. It is the definition of hypocrisy and moral fragility. They don’t care about right and wrong; they care about the bottom line. Truth is truth. As Christians, we understand that. When we look at the historic Christian witness, we see that there are times when our people fall into favor and times when we fall under persecution. When we experience favor, we capitalize on it with ministry to the lost and least. When we experience persecution, we suffer, rejoicing that in the same way they treated Jesus and the prophets.
Heaven will be extraordinarily diverse, but we ought not wait because the early church was, too.
Most of us have read the heavenly vision of Revelation 7:9-10. Let us not forget how the early church showed incredible diversity across gender, ethnic, and socio-economic lines. An in-depth study of Romans 16 reveals that the Roman church was a group that included elites and slaves, men and women, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile. The most astonishing verses in this chapter aren’t even the ones that reveal who is in Rome, but the ones that reveal who is with Paul.
Romans 16:22-23 reveals that the zealous Pharisee, wealthy homeowner, city official, and former slaves were co-laboring together. This is the family of God. When I read Paul’s letters, it’s hard to deny that multi-ethnic-Jew-Gentile fellowship was one of this three most pressing fights.
Jesus employs the principle of equal-outcomes-equity in his parable of the vineyard workers.
Equity can’t be all bad if Jesus uses it. In Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus tells a parable where dayworkers are brought on site for labor throughout the day. Some work a full day, others come in at the last hour, but they are all paid the same. It’s a stunning image of God’s marvelous grace. I’m eager to see how God defies our imaginations with his grace. Kingdom salvation is not meritocratic. I would never suggest we build our nation’s economic policy or our businesses’ corporate culture on this one parable. However, its presence in Matthew forces us to prayerfully consider what it means to make this part of God’s kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven.
In a sectarian world, Jesus revolted by including people of all sorts.
Inclusion is a Christian virtue to a point. We have an exclusive faith. Jesus is the only way to God. However, all are invited to come and see Jesus’ revolutionary way. This sort of inclusive “come and see” culture should be a bare minimum for our Christian communities. Jesus had soft edges but a hard core. Anyone could come into his circle, yet no one left unchallenged. He ministered in a sectarian world, but his community reached Pharisees like Nicodemus, demoniacs like Mary, fishermen like Peter, zealots like Simon, tax collectors like Matthew, wealthy women like Joanna, and more.
In conclusion, no matter your opinion, we don’t have to wage war over DEI. Like any other popular movement or cultural artifact, we can engage it with both redemptive beauty and holy resistance. Jesus didn’t fit their boxes. Neither should we.
Tyler Mckenzie is lead pastor with Northeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky
0 Comments