Gleanings from the Pastor's Perspective: Multiculturalism

The Pastor’s Perspective

“Multiculturalism”
First Published: March 15, 2001

I want to bring to your attention a few matters concerning our Missions giving commitments for the year to come. First, let me thank all of you who have committed to give to the work of missions here at First Presbyterian. We are grateful for your generous initial response to our Faith Promise budget.

Second, let me mention that we still have a considerable distance to make up before we reach our goal of $1,000,000 in commitments. Something around $725,000 has already been committed, so we are still $275,000 short of our goals.

Now, on to another matter. A friend recently passed along to me an outstanding quote from Ramesh Ponnuru that appeared in the National Review not too long ago. He said, while commenting on the importance of opposing “multiculturalism,” (if you are not familiar with the term or the movement, you could read Dinesh D’Souza’s excellent book Illiberal Education to get up to speed) that “multiculturalism presents itself as a democratic movement -- a way of including multiple races in a democratic order. In reality, it denies the possibility of a multiracial democracy. For democracy to work, its members must feel that they belong to the same community, must believe that there is a common good embracing them, and must be able to communicate with one another so as to identify that common good. Multiculturalism insists that different groups cannot understand one another, regards the idea of ‘common interests’ as an ideological fiction that disguises the reality of oppression by the dominant group, and promotes linguistic apartheid. It encourages Americans to think of themselves as a collection of peoples rather than as a people.”

This is a subject about which we, as Christians and citizens, need to think long and hard. Indeed, it directly relates to some of the issues we are trying to work through in our beloved State of Mississippi right now. D’Souza’s books Illiberal Education and The End of Racism would be a great place to start, as would (on a more popular and explicitly Christian level) Jim Sire’s books The Universe Next Door and Chris Chrisman goes to College (both published by IVP) and Peter Jones’ Gospel Truth – Pagan Lies.

Your friend,


Ligon Duncan