A recent essay in America Magazine caught my attention for all the wrong reasons. It argued that Donald Trump’s DEI “crackdown” is an assault on religious freedom. That claim is not only false but dangerously inverted. If anything stands in opposition to the Gospel, it’s the ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Too often, critics dismiss DEI with the easy label of “woke.” The reality is deeper and more dangerous. It’s not simply a trend in language or culture, but a rival creed that collides head-on with Christian truth.
The Jesuits once defended the universality of the Gospel. Now they defend the universality of administrative policies.
The professors at Georgetown believe Jesuit schools should be free to pursue DEI as an expression of their mission. But DEI is not a mission. Not a holy one, anyway. It’s a secular creed, imported from the university bureaucracy, with little resemblance to Christianity. One may dress it up in Jesuit robes, but the substance remains foreign.
Unless you have been living under a rock in Yemen for the past decade, you’re no doubt aware that DEI elevates categories of identity — race, sex, sexual orientation — above the person. Christianity, by contrast, recognizes the individual soul as the irreducible unit of worth. The Gospel insists that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. This doesn’t erase those identities, nor deny their existence and differences. It means that before God, none of them determines a person’s worth or salvation. DEI insists on the very opposite. It keeps those divisions alive, rehearsing them endlessly. It demands that people be sorted by grievance and privilege rather than seen as souls equal before God.
Then, there’s Equity, the central “E” in DEI. In my opinion, it’s the most obvious violation of Christian teaching. Equity is not equality before God or the law. It’s a boardroom buzzword. Borrowed from business, a realm not exactly famous for heavenly values, equity means the forced equalization of outcomes, regardless of merit, effort, or calling. Christianity preaches the exact opposite. Talents differ. God grants gifts unequally. Justice rests not in leveling but in love. Christ’s own teaching makes this clear.
In the parable of the talents, the master entrusts one servant with five talents, another with two, and another with one. Each is judged not by what he lacked, but by how he stewarded what he was given. The faithful servants who doubled their talents were commended. The one who buried his talent was condemned. Nowhere in Christ’s words is there redistribution to ensure all end with the same amount. To preach equity is to deny providence and trade it for paperwork, as if heaven itself could be managed by human resources.
Inclusion, the gentlest-sounding of the three, is nearly as insidious. In DEI language, inclusion doesn’t mean welcoming the stranger or feeding the hungry. It means blanket affirmation of lifestyles and ideologies that clash with Christian truth. A Christian can’t bless abortion as healthcare. A Christian can’t redefine traditional marriage. A Christian can’t erase the God-given distinctions of male and female. What DEI calls inclusion is, in reality, coercion, compelling believers to nod along with what their faith demands they resist.
Yet, under DEI, refusal to affirm is branded as exclusion, and exclusion is treated as a sin. Morality is turned upside down. Resistance becomes the offense; conformity to secular orthodoxy becomes the new righteousness.
And then there’s Diversity. Not diversity of thought or spirit, but a curated collage of appearances. It is politics by optics. True Christian diversity is universal in the fullest sense. Open to every nation, every people, every tongue. It finds unity not in demographic balance but in Christ. DEI’s version of diversity is far narrower. It assigns worth to skin color or gender identity, while often treating theological diversity as a threat.
The Georgetown professors frame Trump’s policy as an intrusion into religious freedom. The opposite is true. DEI has already been used to erode religious freedom, punishing believers who dissent from its dictates. Bakers, florists, teachers, and chaplains have all been targeted under the logic of “inclusion.” It’s not the government that threatens Jesuit schools, but the ideology these schools have embraced. By insisting that all must bend the knee to identity politics, DEI leaves no space for authentic Christian witness.
The danger is sharper still at Catholic institutions. For centuries, the Church has clashed with the state over the freedom to practice its faith. Now, under DEI, Catholic schools themselves invite the state’s ideology into their core. They baptize it in Jesuit language, then claim any challenge to it is persecution. This is a sleight of hand. True persecution is when Christians are forbidden to teach the faith, not when they are told they cannot enforce a secular dogma under the guise of religion.
The irony of Jesuit schools invoking religious liberty in defense of DEI really needs to be highlighted. The Jesuits once defended the universality of the Gospel. Now they defend the universality of administrative policies. They invoke conscience to justify capitulation. They claim continuity with Ignatius while aligning with ivory tower ideologies.
The shift is profound. It shows just how far some Catholic institutions have drifted from their foundations. The professors at Georgetown suggest Trump’s policies threaten Catholic identity. But Catholic identity doesn’t need DEI. It needs truth. It needs fidelity. It requires courage to resist the fashionable lies of the moment. When Catholic schools substitute delusional dogma for doctrine, they don’t expand their mission. If anything, they abandon it. And when they then call this abandonment “religious freedom,” they trade the faith for a counterfeit.
The arguments made in America Magazine aren’t simply misguided. They’re a glimpse into the weakening of Christian influence in education. DEI is a Godless creed that seeks to silence faith whenever faith stands in its way. To defend it in the name of the Gospel is to trade Christ for Caesar. Christians should see it clearly, and resist it without hesitation.
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