There is a great confusion in the world among those who feel that true diversity must necessarily result in only one accepted wisdom: that any right-thinking person must obviously believe in a single righteous point of view. This is not merely a political problem: atheists and religionists often have the same issue: they are convinced, despite endless historical examples to the contrary, that there is only one correct way to understand ourselves and our world.
I argue instead that having diversity of thought and perception is a strength, not a weakness. It is the reason why the First Amendment is so critical: we do not believe that any one person (myself excluded, of course) is 100% right on every topic. But I also think that there is deeper support in our traditions for this kind of approach.
For example, the Torah tells us that men and women are, and should be kept, distinct. It is a reason why there are different laws for men and women, and why cross-dressing is forbidden. The key here is that the Torah, which certainly encourages marriage and a healthy society, does not encourage men and women to blur their distinctions beyond recognition. The underlying principle is that the beauty and magic happens in the gap between men and women, not by eliminating that gap. Just as man and G-d are meant to be distinct, but still connect.
The Torah has a lot about this. We cannot mix plant and animal fibers (wool and linen). A kid may not be cooked in its mother’s milk, because that milk was produced for nurturing, not death. Tools that are created by mankind for the purpose of separation (Tuval-Cain makes iron and copper into swords), cannot be used to create the altar, which exists to connect heaven and earth, not divide them. And men and women must be different, in no small part because much of challenge of growth in any person is the ability to learn how to see things from an alien perspective.
Consider, if you will, the difference between someone who has been married for years, and someone who has been single for that same period. Single people simply lack the same degree of empathy, and they become calcified in their intransigent thinking. Any survey of public opinion these days will produce countless examples of the latter. As we see, one of the largest differentiators between voters for the vying candidates is their marital status.
Being multicultural, and being diverse, is a good thing. Diverse thinking leads to better societies. But we must be very careful to understand that diversity, like sexual differences, is always meant to bridge divisions, not eliminate them.
P.S. The open question is what the limits on this principle ought to be – we love diversity, but Haitians are not welcome in my neighborhood (though it would reduce my cat food expenses). Values matter a great deal, and first-world values must not be poisoned by third-world values. One litmus test for me is that anyone who wants to live in America must be able to pass a Citizenship test, reject incompatible systems (like Sharia), and pledge to uphold the Bill of Rights for all citizens, over and above any other beliefs they may hold.