Statement on Diversity

Unbound rec­og­nizes that soci­ety is marked both by diver­sity and by social pat­terns that struc­ture and some­times restrict that diver­sity and oppress indi­vid­u­als who do not con­form. While acknowl­edg­ing uni­ver­sal human com­plic­ity, par­tic­u­larly on the part of any who occupy places of ‘priv­i­lege,’ Unbound strives to avoid and to dis­man­tle, as much as pos­si­ble, any and all struc­tures of oppres­sion. There­fore, Unbound affirms that:

  1. All human beings are cre­ated in God’s image and are there­fore deserv­ing of respect and dig­ni­fied treatment;
  2. God cre­ated the human com­mu­nity in abun­dant plu­ral­ity, and that plu­ral­ity is a gift;
  3. With all of its diver­sity, the body of Christ remains sin­gu­lar and uni­fied, an inter­con­nected web of “being,” for when one mem­ber of the body suf­fers, all suf­fer, and when one rejoices, all rejoice;
  4. Based in part on that inter­con­nec­tiv­ity, God cre­ated human­ity for rela­tion­ship and com­mu­nity; but
  5. Bent toward sin, human his­tory is marked by instance after instance of indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties break­ing down the unity of the body by assert­ing them­selves over and against other indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties, estab­lish­ing pat­terns of sys­temic exclu­sion and predation.

 

Unbound com­mits to:

  1. Regard all human beings as chil­dren of God, resist­ing all forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion based on human demographics;
  2. Honor the unity of the human com­mu­nity with­out obscur­ing its plu­ral­ity and gifted differences;
  3. Cre­ate com­mu­nity that inten­tion­ally chal­lenges and crosses socially-imposed bar­ri­ers based upon class, cul­ture, race, age, abil­ity, gen­der iden­tity, sex­ual iden­tity, ide­ol­ogy, and place of origin;
  4. Oppose all sys­tems of oppres­sion, includ­ing the ones in which we our­selves par­tic­i­pate; and
  5. Engage in con­tin­u­ing self-examination, while seek­ing out new learn­ing, train­ing, and part­ner­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties which might fur­ther our dis­ci­ple­ship, inclu­sion, and com­mit­ment to justice.

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