Well after last week, I knew that this week wouldn't be a walk in the park... but I wasn't quite expecting what I was faced with in the first three days of this week! Like every profession, we have to have an awareness of 'Equality and Diversity' and so I thought that I'd get it over and done with in my first year - get that box ticked. But it was far from a box ticking exercise!
One of the first statements from the course leader was "every church is multicultural" - well for starters that took me two days to get my head round! You try and work that out when you've come from a congregation of European-dissent? It all comes down to the use of language and what we actually mean by terms we so freely use, sometimes without giving them a second thought.
And human nature is scary! Have you ever heard of the 'blue eye, brown eye' study? Look it up, because it is very interesting, though some may find it unethical and possibly disturbing. However, it is a great illustration of how easily we can be convinced of something and how having a sense of power over another person can lead to some of the things we see in the news daily. We really don't learn from history!
Now being Christian doesn't mean that I'm immune from this, I can easily fall into the trap of saying something that might seem reasonable in my head, but which is really unhelpful for someone else. That doesn't mean I should keep quiet, but does mean that I need to be mindful of those that are around me. This isn't 'political correctness gone mad', it is just treating others as you would want to be treated - Jesus' second commandment!
We need to be celebrating the differences between us, because if were not all different then the world would be a really boring place!
No comments:
Post a Comment