Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site
Featured
Featured
Paid Promoted Content

Cultural diversity is part of the great redemptive purpose of God

 |  November 10, 2017

Learn more at: Judson Press

Given the current mood in the country and the moral and ethical dilemmas the nation faces, how is the church to respond? Baptist pastor Wendell Griffen offers leadership on how to deal with the challenges and opportunities of being people of prophetic hope in a divisive time in his new book, The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope (Judson Press, 2017). Griffen challenges social justice-minded followers of Jesus to reexamine and embrace the radical gospel of Jesus Christ and the generosity of God’s love in confronting and overcoming the issues of racism, sexism, imperialism, materialism, militarism, techno-centrism, and xenophobia.

Some people interpret the biblical story of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9 as God’s punishment of human ambition and ingenuity. They point to the city and its tower and the words of God found in Genesis 11:6-7: “And the LORD said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’”

According to that view, cultural diversity within humanity — our many languages, ethnicities, and identities — is God’s way of punishing human arrogance and ingenuity for daring to build the first skyscraper.

That interpretation of the story of Babel is not fair to God. Do we really think the Creator of the universe is threatened by a municipal construction project? Are we dealing with a Being so insecure that a few people who establish a city together and build a skyscraper get on God’s nerves? If the Lord is that easily threatened, God should not be called good and gracious but petty and tyrannical.

Instead of interpreting the passage to mean cultural diversity is divine punishment, we should understand it to show how cultural diversity is part of the great redemptive purpose of God. In Creation, God commanded the first humans to be fruitful and fill the earth. At Babel, we see the human tendency to build towers and walls — out of fear. “Otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth,” they told one another (v. 4). But scattering across the earth and filling it was exactly what God wanted from the human family!

For the community at Babel, salvation meant tribal identity and a protected location. God’s response was to mix them up linguistically — and scatter them geographically (vv. 7-8. Cultural diversity — mixing the languages and dispersing the tribe — was God’s way of getting the people to fulfill the creation mandate. God was at work at Babel.

As humans migrated, the challenge became whether we would retain a sense of our kinship under one Creator. Would distance and diversity cause us to deny our common humanity? Would we glorify God in many languages and places, or would we decide that only our place and our language truly deserve divine favor? Would we try to recreate Babel? If so, what does God do?

Wendell Griffen

The rest of the Bible and human history answer that question. Throughout the centuries, human beings have stubbornly held on to the ancient fear of diversity. Fear of people who are different lies at the root of much hate, oppression, and injustice in human history. We view people who are different as dangerous, whether they are different in how they look, what they speak, whom they love, how they worship, or from where they come.

Even Baptists do not trust God enough to love the diversity that God created. In fact, we have often used religion to justify prejudice, bigotry, and injustice. Consider our petty denominational rivalries and dogmatic litmus tests. Listen to the hate-filled and fear-based demands by US politicians and white Christian nationalists to preserve monuments to a racist past and to put up a wall to fend against a more racially diverse future. See it in the efforts to ban Muslim immigrants and turn away Syrian refugees.

If there is a condemnation in the Genesis 11 passage — and I use the word if intentionally — it condemns the idea that sameness is the way to secure our safety and salvation. We are one people because we have a common Creator, not because we speak the same language or live in the same location. Our oneness lies in who we are before God, not in whom we are physically related to by human ancestry and geography. God loves our diversity. God intentionally caused our diversity. God is glorified by our diversity.

And if there were any doubt about this conviction, just consider how the story of Babel is mirrored in the story of Pentecost in Acts 2. Once again, a mixing of languages is divinely stirred — and when the Holy Spirit moves, the church of Jesus Christ is born. Pentecost confirms what Babel teaches: God calls us to expand our notions of community and nudges us into deeper experiences of diversity.

 

Wendell L. Griffen is a Baptist pastor serving the New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, and a Circuit Judge for the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Arkansas. He is founder and CEO of Griffen Strategic Consulting, and his blog Justice Is a Verb! can be found at www.wendellgriffen.blogspot.com. This article is adapted from “Babel and Pentecost” in his book, The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope (Judson Press, 2017).

Judson Press is the publishing ministry of American Baptist Churches USA, a historic Protestant denomination that includes 1.5 million members in 5,600 congregations in the United States and Puerto Rico. The denomination’s national offices are housed in the American Baptist Mission Center in Valley Forge, PA.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
Tags:The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic HopeJudson Presssocial justiceWendell GriffenDiversityBabel
Read Next:

A primer on why Southern Baptists are fighting over women in ministry once again

Analysis

More Articles

  • All
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • An open letter to all Southern Baptists

    OpinionRick Warren

  • Shurden Lecture takes on the ‘myth of American chosenness’

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • An open letter to Elijah Brown, Baptist World Alliance CEO

    OpinionRichard Wilson

  • Why this seminary professor’s view of MrBeast and his friend is deadly and dangerous

    OpinionMark Wingfield

  • What happens when Tom Ascol finds Ted Cruz to be too liberal and quotes Leviticus 20:13?

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Three billboards outside Nashville, Tennessee

    NewsRick Pidcock

  • What I learned from Taylor Swift

    OpinionBill Wilson

  • Remembering Pulse nighclub and the power of affirmation

    OpinionMaina Mwaura

  • A primer on why Southern Baptists are fighting over women in ministry once again

    AnalysisMark Wingfield

  • Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina loses president and board chair in same week

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Faith-based immigration advocates hopeful about new bill in Congress

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Coalition urges White House not to overlook Black immigrants

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Working and waiting with people and plants

    OpinionBob Newell

  • Gay Christian man says he was kicked off BWA commissions

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Let’s reclaim the real Baptist identity

    OpinionJustin L. Addington

  • Southwestern trustees affirm their leadership and repudiate two trustees who raised alarms

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • How to fix anemic U.S. rural health care? Learn from Africa and look to the churches, Birx says

    NewsElizabeth Souder

  • To the mother who complained about Amanda Gorman’s poem

    OpinionRobert P. Sellers

  • Medical professionals address myths and misconceptions about transgender kids

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Focus on the Family affiliate is the unifying force behind campaign to restrict transgender rights

    AnalysisSteve Rabey

  • Opal Lee may be the ‘Grandmother of Juneteenth,’ but she’s not done working for justice yet

    NewsMallory Challis

  • Rising from the ashes: God’s empowering message for displaced women

    OpinionRosaly Guzman

  • Ministry jobs and more

    NewsBarbara Francis

  • How the Progressive National Baptist Convention plans to put faith into action

    OpinionDarryl Gray

  • Believe me: The struggle of Black pain

    OpinionZachary Barber

  • Shurden Lecture takes on the ‘myth of American chosenness’

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • What happens when Tom Ascol finds Ted Cruz to be too liberal and quotes Leviticus 20:13?

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Three billboards outside Nashville, Tennessee

    NewsRick Pidcock

  • Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina loses president and board chair in same week

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Faith-based immigration advocates hopeful about new bill in Congress

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Coalition urges White House not to overlook Black immigrants

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Gay Christian man says he was kicked off BWA commissions

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Southwestern trustees affirm their leadership and repudiate two trustees who raised alarms

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • How to fix anemic U.S. rural health care? Learn from Africa and look to the churches, Birx says

    NewsElizabeth Souder

  • Medical professionals address myths and misconceptions about transgender kids

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Opal Lee may be the ‘Grandmother of Juneteenth,’ but she’s not done working for justice yet

    NewsMallory Challis

  • Ministry jobs and more

    NewsBarbara Francis

  • U.S. Department of Education issues guidance on religious expression in schools

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Ten Commandments bill dies in Texas Legislature

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Leader of Assemblies of God student group at Baylor arrested on child sexual abuse charges

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • BJC and Interfaith Alliance applaud first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • New documentary series shows how churches that close can keep ministry open

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Southwestern Seminary trustees called to special meeting next Tuesday

    NewsMark Wingfield

  • Transitions for the week of 5-26-23

    NewsBarbara Francis

  • 8-year-old’s death in CBP custody highlights Biden’s ‘system of death,’ immigration advocates say

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Evangelical worldview ministries seek to promote ‘proper’ thoughts, beliefs and actions

    NewsSteve Rabey

  • Here’s another angle to corporate DEI work: Increased support for ‘faith friendly’ workplaces

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • Amid Sudan war and elsewhere, water scarcity threatens lives

    NewsAnthony Akaeze

  • Ministry jobs and more

    NewsBarbara Francis

  • Gap widens on American confidence in vaccines

    NewsJeff Brumley

  • An open letter to all Southern Baptists

    OpinionRick Warren

  • An open letter to Elijah Brown, Baptist World Alliance CEO

    OpinionRichard Wilson

  • Why this seminary professor’s view of MrBeast and his friend is deadly and dangerous

    OpinionMark Wingfield

  • What I learned from Taylor Swift

    OpinionBill Wilson

  • Remembering Pulse nighclub and the power of affirmation

    OpinionMaina Mwaura

  • Working and waiting with people and plants

    OpinionBob Newell

  • Let’s reclaim the real Baptist identity

    OpinionJustin L. Addington

  • To the mother who complained about Amanda Gorman’s poem

    OpinionRobert P. Sellers

  • Rising from the ashes: God’s empowering message for displaced women

    OpinionRosaly Guzman

  • How the Progressive National Baptist Convention plans to put faith into action

    OpinionDarryl Gray

  • Believe me: The struggle of Black pain

    OpinionZachary Barber

  • They’ll know we are Christians by our what?

    OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

  • How to celebrate Pentecost without balloons, plastic doves or salsa

    OpinionJack Levison

  • The generational pain and hope of the Southern Baptist witch trials

    OpinionWill Raybon

  • Why demographic shifts haven’t yet swamped the Republican Party

    OpinionRobert P. Jones

  • Tina Turner kept the divine flame burning

    OpinionJustin Cox

  • Remembering Bob Seymour: Being wise as serpents and harmless as doves

    OpinionCurtis Freeman

  • Here’s why Ron DeSantis has gone to war with Disney

    OpinionRodney Kennedy

  • Yes, Tim Scott is a Black man, but he’s still promoting Christian nationalism

    OpinionRick Pidcock

  • Why ‘affirming’ churches need to speak up

    OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

  • Five things Southern Baptists should do now to address clergy sex abuse

    OpinionChrista Brown and David Clohessy

  • Why we must be cautious about understanding what’s going on at Southwestern Seminary

    OpinionMark Wingfield

  • On graduation and the priesthood of all believers

    OpinionVal Fisk

  • Here’s how to force SBC entities to be accountable to people in the pew about their finances

    OpinionMark Wingfield

  • These are some of the best pastors I know

    OpinionJustin Cox

  • In Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial, Jewish rituals feature as prominently as the carnage of the day

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Manipur Christians: ‘The Violence Has Shattered Us’

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Pride flag glimpsed on ‘The Chosen’ set prompts call for boycott

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Why Chick-fil-A Is Drawing Fire Over a ‘Culture of Belonging’

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Survey: Drop in Eastern European antisemitism may be due to Zelenskyy effect

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Street scrolls: The beats, rhymes and spirituality of Latin hip-hop

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • ‘Felt like a year’: Worshipper describes fear during gunman’s deadly attack on Pittsburgh synagogue

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Near the Western Wall, Jewish radicals shout at Christian Evangelicals to ‘go home’

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Playing a religious character without making faith the punchline

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Jewish settlers erect religious school in evacuated West Bank outpost after Israel repeals ban

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • How the practice of Nichiren Buddhism sustained Tina Turner for 50 years

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Connecticut lawmakers absolve accused colonial-era witches, apologize for “miscarriage of justice”

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • ‘Avatar’ Franchise Expands Ideas About Spirituality Beyond A Western, Christian Lens

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Catholic Church in California grapples with more than 3,000 lawsuits, alleging child sex abuse

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Canadian Christians Launch Collective for Climate Action

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • As ‘The Marvelous Mrs Maisel’ ends, will its Jewish legacy be more than a punchline?

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • US Slavic Churches Booming with Ukrainian War Refugees

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • What is ‘ethical AI’ and how can companies achieve it?

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Russia acknowledges Vatican peace initiative, says no steps yet for a mission to Moscow

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • What we need to understand is that fascism is intersectional and erotic — ’thy rod is thy gun,’ with a hip-thrust

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Our Beloved Ones Don’t Become Angels When They Die

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Turkey’s Christian Sites: Visiting The Seven Churches From The Book Of Revelation

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Firewalkers in Greece honor Saint Constantine in mystery-shrouded, centuries-old rituals

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • In fight against ‘tyranny,’ Michigan board declares itself ‘constitutional county’

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

  • Montana acts to protect Native American priority in adopting Native children

    Curated

    Exclude from home pageBNG staff

Conversations that Matter.

© 2023 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS