Is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion a Religion?

In Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America¹, Professor John McWhorter (who is Black) argues that DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion—and the Third-Wave Antiracist movement that has swept across much of America is “a religion in all but name.” He identifies the believers of this religion as the Elect and states: “With the rise of Third Wave Antiracism we are witnessing the birth of a new religion, just as Romans witnessed the birth of Christianity. To see [the Elect] this way is not to wallow in derision, but to genuinely grasp what they are.”

Seven Elements that Make Third-Wave Antiracism a Religion

In his chapter titled, "The New Religion," McWhorter claims that the following seven elements make the Elect’s commitment to third-wave antiracism a new religion.

1. The Elect have a superstition. McWhorter argues that for the Elect there are basic assertions that must not be challenged. For example, the Elect believe there is a force called structural racism that is the source of all the inequity and that everyone must always be oriented against that force. To question that is to be racist.
2. The Elect have a clergy. McWhorter identifies Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibrahim X. Kendi, and Robin DiAngelo as the high priests of the movement.
3. The Elect have original sin. White privilege is the Elect’s original sin. McWhorter characterizes this as follows, “The Elect are to ritually acknowledge that they possess white privilege, with an awareness that they can never be absolved from it.”
4. The Elect are evangelical. “Key to being an Elect is a sense that there is always a flock of unconverted heathen,” writes McWhorter. Many academic institutions have now become home to reaching, preaching, and converting the young. McWhorter frames this as follows, “It is easy to see smugness in this vision and to wonder how so many smart people could fall so easily into being so insufferable. We need not see them this way. They are not smug. They are evangelists. They are normal, as are all religious people.
5. The Elect are apocalyptic. “Elect scripture,” writes McWhorter, “stipulates a judgment day: the great day when America 'owns up to' or 'comes to terms with' racism and finally fixes it.” He goes on to argue that this is essentially impossible, but it nevertheless gives the Elect their purpose in reaching out to the heathen and preaching to convert.
6. The Elect ban the heretic. The endless examples of cancel culture from the left make this point obvious. “The Elect consider it an imperative to not only critique those who disagree with their creed but to seek their punishment and elimination to whatever degree real-life conditions can accommodate.”
7. The Elect supplant older religions. Here McWhorter gives several examples of how the Elect have started to blend in with some religious communities, especially those in Unitarianism. He wrote, “The pastor of New York City’s Church of St. Francis Xavier led vows addressing white privilege and racial justice, melding Catholicism and Electism" on the level of personal testimony in a fashion much more reminiscent of white fragility than Dorothy Day.

In reading McWhorter’s book, I thought that I would have enjoyed a parallel book on why MAGA is a religion. I think the fact that we are seeing polarizing political movements enacted with religious fervor is a consequence of what Professor John Vervaeke calls the Meaning Crisis. He argues that, collectively, we do not have a shared sense of what is true and good, which results in nihilism, political fragmentation, chaotic pluralism in our knowledge systems, and serious mental health problems.

In a new video series produced by the Cognitive Science Show, Professor Vervaeke and I are exploring a different way called transcendent naturalism. It outlines a new worldview that bridges science and spirituality. We are not advocating for superstitious beliefs or the banning of heretics. We are searching for something like a new religion in the sense of a religio, which is a belief-value set that binds people together and helps to separate the sacred from the profane. One way to summarize the justification system transcendent naturalism advocates is framed by the motto: Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.