Mon, 17 Feb 2025 02:37:13 -0800WeeblyTue, 06 Apr 2021 18:32:01 GMThttps://www.orthodoxchickwithablog.com/diversity/an-interesting-think-about-diversity​Diversity and cancel culture have become such a hot topic these days.  The right is offended because of cancel culture and the left is offended because there isn't enough diversity or inclusion. 
I am skeptical about diversity and cancel culture.  I think diversity and inclusion of women and minority groups in a dominantly entitled white male society is a positive.  Making a business decision to stop publishing books that aren't selling well is a smart decision for a capitalistic corporation.  Also, I feel that going overboard on political correctness can be a bit much. 
My problem with diversity and cancel culture is that both have been going on for generations.  As a high school student, I was fat, had an ethnic background, was not Catholic or Protestant, had zits, and didn't play a sport.  I was ostracized by my so-called classmates.  They were the clique.  The popular students.  I was the "nerd" on the outside looking in.  In fact, to this day, I still am. 
When I was in college, I was fortunate enough to find my niche.  I joined the college radio station and felt accepted for who I was:  an outcast.  However, when I left college and started working, I was once again on the outside looking in.  I was not "cool" enough to hang out with the cliques at work.  In one instance, I was related to the CEO of the company and was not trusted with any sort of gossip.  My colleagues feared I'd tattle on them.  It was never my intention but they didn't care.
Later on, I went to graduate school.  I went to an Orthodox Christian seminary.  The majority of the students were men who were on track to become priests.  I went through the whole curriculum with the exception of one class.  I was again left on the outside because I was a woman.  In some instances, my fellow students labeled me a "femi-nazi."  I'm not sure what that means but I definitely was not that.  I always believed that Jesus Christ was an equal opportunity Human and a very loving and inclusive God. 
He stood up for women's rights.  In John 8:7, Jesus Christ says: "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  In other instances, He was an advocate for minorities and disaffected groups.  For example, His entire dialog with the Samaritan woman.  Her biggest drawback was that she was not Jewish.  She even asks Jesus in John 4:9 "'how...that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?' For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."
The biggest problem I have is with the Bible.  It has always had the descriptor "he" for eons but in recent decades has changed to accommodate everyone.  It's "he" in the Bible because that's the way people thought at the time.  God is male.  However, we know that's not true.  God is all.  He is neither male nor female.  God IS.  I don't understand why that's such an issue. It's just the grammar rule of its day.  We can never know God.  If we can't know God, how can we describe God's gender?  
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