Celebrate Diversity?

As I was driving to church today, I saw a car with many, many politically themed bumper stickers on it. One sticker caught my eye. It was a white sticker with just two words on it, with each letter being a different color. It said plainly, "Celebrate Diversity."

But what does that mean? What I think the owner of the car meant was, "Differences between people should always be accepted and even celebrated." The irony is that people who generally like to celebrate diversity on that level can only celebrate with like-minded people. If you don't happen to believe that all diversity should be celebrated, you will probably not receive any invitations to their afternoon tea parties.

But God's people really do need to celebrate diversity - but within limits. God made us all different and we need to celebrate those differences. We have different personalities, likes, dislikes, gifts, talents, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, etc. There is room for diversity in the church. Even minor theological differences not explicitly addressed in the Bible can be overlooked between brothers and sisters in Christ.

What the church cannot celebrate is diversity in explicitly stated Biblical teachings, otherwise known as orthodox theology. Some of these would be who God is, who Jesus is, how he wants us to live, how to be saved, etc. When the church deviates from the teachings of God, you can be sure that it is actually deviating from God himself.

God's people need to be God's people; doing things his way or no way at all.