The Tower Of Babel

 It seems to me that anyone of faith who grapples with the issues associated with a multi-ethnic community/congregation/what have you should as part of their due diligence study the origin of racial diversity as it has been recorded in the Scriptures in the account of the Tower of Babel. I personally have reached no definitive conclusions, but I will try to address pertinent facts as I recognize them. 

After the Great Flood, the descendants of Noah were one people with a common language. And they decided to build a city that included a great tower, referred to nowadays as the Tower of Babel. There have been speculations on motives behind building the tower and the tower's purpose. Some suggest that the tower would prevent people from dying in the event of another Great Flood, even though God promised that He would never cause another Great Flood.  Others suggest that this tower was to be the first ziggurat, with the physical elevation somehow facilitating a connection between heaven and earth. Others suggest that the main issue was the primary motive "to make a name for ourselves" reflecting what was considered by God to be mortal pride. 

I honestly have no clue what it was that God considered blasphemous, though the NIV version puts it this way:

"Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them."

Perhaps it was the start down we nowadays refer to as the slippery slope? "this is only the beginning of what they will do". The bottom line is that God chooses to destroy their ability to reach a consensus by having them speak in different languages. (I submit that this action also resulted in creating very different world views, something I've referred to in other blog posts.)

The question: Was it the ability to reach consensus what God was addressing? Or was it the consensus "to make a name for ourselves" which is the result of pride, the mortal sin that caused Lucifer to fall? Or was it something else altogether?

It seems to me that if we don't agree on this, we can not agree on any solution addressing the issues that result from a multi-ethnic society- or whether we should even try - at least not if God is not part of the equation, as faith should transcend ethnic culture.  This is ironic because God Himself had His own 'tribe' - the people of Israel. And the story that the Pilgrims first came to America seeking religious freedom is actually a myth. The Pilgrims who came to America had left England ten years earlier and had lived and worshipped freely in the Netherlands under lenient Dutch rule. The move to America was done out of fear that their children would adopt Dutch culture and ways.

Interestingly, the Bible does address the concept of the sojourner (foreigner) and I once did a word study involving every occurrence of that word in Scripture and what I found was fairly consistent: sojourners were expected to obey the local laws - and they were not to be restricted from any rights or privileges granted to local citizens. And the expectation (or fear) was assimilation into the prevailing culture - but then, the people of Israel were God's tribe, and the main fear was loss of faith... and different faiths were incompatible.

Again, I have made no definitive conclusions - but it seems to me that at least within the church, there should be a common consensus - but that consensus should be derived from the faith, and not from secular prevailing cultural values.