If there’s one thing that multicultural-promoting policies have done for Westerners it’s to get us out of a space of obscene parochialism although for the most part it never was a pre-existing condition. The objectives of shifting perspective to global need or economic and workforce needs of any Western country are not, and have never been, the primary focus of multiculturalism. The leftist dream of multiculturalism is to make all cultures in a nation, including the host nation’s culture, considered equal. When that is done, Western laws based on Judeo-Christianity are undermined. Without a common culture, a country’s predominant religion, in the West’s case, Christianity, is also undermined. This, therefore, forms the basis for cultural and religious relativism although some would argue that this order is reversed. Because we have become relativistic, we embrace multiculturalism.
Except…except Christianity is the truth! It is the one, true religion. Of course, this narrative is anathema to most people let alone multiculturalists. The whole point of multiculturalism, from the standpoint of the anarchic multiculturalist, is to undermine Christianity and Christian culture. Israel in early Old Testament times was not multicultural because it maintained its defined features as the people of God and the ‘alien’ or ‘sojourner’ in their midst was under the same requirement as the native.
29 “This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; 30 for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD. 31 It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute. Leviticus 16:29-31 (NASB)
See also:
Leviticus 17:10-12 (ESV) 10 “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. 12 Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.
The stranger wasn’t to come into Israel telling the Israelites how to live with a million different variants of what they considered right – ie relative truth. Rather, God told the Israelites how to live and the sojourner/stranger/refugee in their midst were to obey the same laws that the Israelites were called to obey. Ancient Israel had no place for lying down and having Israel’s beliefs and values trampled on, only to be replaced by the sojourner’s values and beliefs. Nor was it expected that the alien’s religion or belief should stand equally alongside the beliefs and values of Israel. This could not be more at odds with the spirit of multiculturalism, a Marxist invention aimed at bringing down Christianity in the midst of Christian nations. We in the West have dug our own grave with the taking up of multiculturalism. By all means, accept and care for the stranger who comes in at the discretion of the host country but not so as to whittle away the host country’s values and beliefs. Every inhabitant of ancient Israel was to adhere to the same Israelite-people-of-God standard. See:
Leviticus 24:22 (NASB) 22 There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the LORD your God.
Again, compare the alien and the native:
Numbers 15:29-31 (NASB) 29 You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the sons of Israel and for the alien who sojourns among them. 30 But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.’”
See in the following that the sojourner was to join the Israelites in obeying the Ten Commandments, including keeping the Sabbath:
Deuteronomy 5:12-14 (NASB) 12 ‘Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
So let’s define ‘multicultural’. Firstly, it does not mean multi-ethnic. ‘Multiculturalism’ is the ideology that promotes all cultures as equally valid. Culture includes laws, beliefs, customs and religious practices. Under multiculturalism, all cultures within a nation are treated in the same way in those of the host country. The West edges towards multiculturalism when it accepts, for example, polygamy in its midst. As we have seen in the Scriptures quoted, ancient Israel was nothing like this. Multiculturalism is about a host country sacrificing its defined laws and values to those of the newcomer, otherwise known as showing ‘tolerance’. But is this tolerance or nihilism, that can only lead to civilisational suicide?
Of course, we in the West live in democracies and ancient Israel was a good theocracy, at least at first, when leaders such as Moses loved God above all else and faithfully kept bringing the people back to obedience and faith and away from idolatry and rebellion. Most importantly, it was a good theocracy because the God of the Bible is good. It did not remain a good theocracy as many of its kings and the Israelites copied the nations around about them instead of continuing to rely on God.
The question is, do we need to embrace multiculturalism given that western nations are democracies? Is it only justifiable to do away with multiculturalism if we become a theocracy? The West was once a cohesive, Christian culture as evidenced by its laws and judgements, even as a democracy. So what upset our democracies? Why is democracy itself now in disarray? Can democracy work anyway? Or do we need a theocracy? Westerners have only witnessed Islamic theocracy. Because Islamic theocracy is not founded on the God of the Bible, Muslims are led into wild error. Islam slays and enslaves dissidents. It is not theocracy that is to blame for this but Islamic belief. Christianity, in contrast, persuades to the truth and offers help to people in need whether they be Christians or not. We in the West with our democracies really do need to re-think our multicultural policies. Notwithstanding all that has been said against multiculturalism, God cared for the alien/foreigner/refugee and of course, so should we:
Deuteronomy 10:18-19 (NASB) 18 He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. 19 So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Nuance alert: this does not mean I am advocating for open borders nor am I advocating for foolishly lax entry requirements. What I am saying is that whoever gets into this country through the front door, and through properly approved channels, is the stranger God has asked us to welcome. God, however, did not tell us to let the foreigner trample all over us.
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