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Word of the Week: W/C 28/09/15 - Equality

26/9/2015

The state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities.

Image: ja.wikipedia.org

Equality is an important concept in the modern era; the rise of Human Rights since the end of WW2 and the enactment of various laws and conventions on Human Rights has brought it to the attention of the majority. To many in the West it is difficult to imagine a time when people were not seen as equal - thankfully many of the world’s major regimes that discriminated against minorities (or even majorities) have come to an end; Apartheid in South Africa, Genocide in Rwanda and Segregation in the USA. Of course there are many situations across the world where Human Rights abuses are still being committed and many charities are working hard to highlight these abuses.

Whilst there may be laws in place to ensure equality in the UK we should not be complacent. There is still a great deal of inequality in the UK. Here I want to focus on two areas where many are still not given equality through unconscious bias - this is where people, without being aware, discriminate against people who are different to them.

Sexism (Gender bias) is the act of discriminating against someone because of their Gender. It can affect any gender but it is particularly documented against women. Whilst many men are keen to argue that they are in favour of equal rights for women this is not, for reasons that are highly complex, bourne out when we look at the statistics. The website Feminista gives the following facts about women at work:

The full time gender pay gap is 10%, and the average part-time pay gap is 34.5%.
It is estimated that for each year a mother is absent from the workplace her future wages will reduce by 5%.
Approximately 70% of people in national minimum wage jobs are women.
Women make up only 17% board directors of FTSE 100 companies.
Up to 30,000 women are sacked each year simply for being pregnant and each year an estimated 440,000 women lose out on pay or promotion as a result of pregnancy.

There is a very interesting debate to be had about why these statistics are the case; some argue that the fact that women have children means that some inequality is inevitable. Many others however argue that the level of difference is not acceptable and evidence of a much more malevolent sexism in society.

Disability Bias is the act of discriminating against a person because they are disabled. Some charities suggest that around 10% of the world’s population live with a disablity (http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics/ accessed: 25/09/15). Discrimination that this group face could be a lack of access to transport, goods and services; difficulty in securing a job and promotion; or simply the way they are treated by others. A fantastic short film to gain a sense of what it must be like to experience disability bias is “Talk” produced by the Disability Rights Commission (This version has Audio Description in order to make it accessible to the visually impaired):

Word of the Week: W/C 21/09/15 - Messiah

19/9/2015

The Hebrew word meaning “anointed one” and used to refer to the king or leader who would be God’s servant. Jesus was called the Messiah by his followers.

Life for the Jews in first century Palestine was pretty tough, in fact it had never been easy! They had been conquered by the Romans in 63 BC by Pompey; but this was only the last in a line of foreign rulers including the Greeks, the Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians. The problem for Israel is that it lies at a very important crossroads between the Mediterranean, Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Far East. Spices, silks and food-stuff were constantly being traded across its borders and this made it a profitable and well as strategically important land to hold. It is no wonder that by 30AD the people of Israel had begun to rather fed up of all this foreign rule and yearned for the golden age of David and Solomon, the great kings of Israel to return.

Israel's important strategic position. Image: Wikipedia Creative Commons

Into this cauldron came a man, called Jesus of Nazareth, who was soon being hailed by some to be The Messiah, the redeemer of Israel. I do not want to get into a debate here about who Jesus really was. The options are various and have been hotly contested over the centuries: from God incarnate, to liberal Rabbi and from political dissident to strict Jewish reformer. The “quest for the historical Jesus” has long generated a great deal of heat and not much light. One thing that cannot be disputed is that the different Jewish groups who lived in Palestine at the time of Jesus certainly had different ideas about whether a Messiah was going to come and if he did, what sort of a leader he was going to be.

The Sadducee: The Sadducee were the upper class who held power in the temple and held the majority of seats on the council of elders at Jerusalem (the Sanhedrin). They often tried to work with the Romans to ensure peace. Religiously, they believed that the Torah (the first five books of the bible) was the only part of Judaism with any authority - they therefore did not believe in the Messiah asthe he was not predicted in the Torah.

Image: Wikipedia Creative Commons

The Pharisees: This group were middle class Jews who were mainly businessmen and they dominated the Synagogues, the small meeting places of ordinary Jews throughout the country. They did take the rest of the Jewish Bible (the Tanakh) seriously and so were expecting a Messiah, but they took the Law so seriously that they were obsessed by it and following it closely. Laws about cleanliness, food and professions were taken extremely seriously and so they come across as uncompassionate in the New Testament. The Messiah for them would be a prophet like Moses, a Priest and a King like David. He certainly would not be “the son of God” and they did not believe that God could become man.

The Essenes: The Essenes were a small sect of Judaism that were very like the Pharisees with a few key differences: They were extremely secretive and they were expecting an imminent catastrophe that would end the world and they believed the Messiah would usher in this end time. They seem to have not accepted Jesus as Messiah, although there are some scholars who think that John the Baptist might have been an Essene.

The Zealots: These were a group of political dissidents who wanted to rebel against Roman rule - they would have looked for a Messiah who was a political leader. It is interesting to note that amongst Jesus’ disciples was a man called “Simon the Zealot”. In fact they did eventually cause a revolt in 66 AD after Jesus’ death which eventually led to the Jewish expulsion from Palestine in 70AD and the destruction of the Temple.

Image: Flickr/Freestone Wilson

In the end Jesus seems to have been rather different to what these final three groups wanted: He was not a military man as he showed when he arrived in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday riding on the colt of a Donkey so the Zealots rejected him. He was not pure enough for the Pharisees as he mixed with Romans, tax-collectors and sinners. And finally he did not bring about the end of the world as the Essenes wanted. Perhaps it was this, added to the fact that the Sadducees did not believe in a Messiah at all that lead to him being arrested and handed over for crucifixion. Of course for Christians today this is not an issue, as we saw last week it was all part of God’s plan for salvation that Jesus would be despised and rejected to unite God and Humans.

Word of the Week: W/C 14/09/15 - Salvation

13/9/2015

Being released from the limitations of human existence and sin to eternal life with God

Image: Weebly

Salvation in Christian context is the idea of being saved from sin and obtaining eternal life with God. Christian theologians such as Paul and Augustine looked back to the Adam and Eve narrative in the Old Testament and suggested that the human relationship with God which Adam and Eve originally enjoyed broke down at the Fall. Through sinning by disobeying God and eating of the Fruit mankind "Fell" and all humans share in this disobedience. However, God through his love and mercy constantly cares for his creation, first by giving them laws to obey, sending the prophets to guide them and finally by becoming Incarnate in the form of Jesus, suffering and dying on the cross for the sins of the world. By his death the relationship is restored and a way to heaven is opened up - this is known as Atonement

Many exclusivist Christians believe that humans can only be saved by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and salvation is only available to those who place their faith in him. Hence he is the Saviour. Faith is more than simply belief in the teaching and example of Jesus; it is about placing one’s trust in these things. Most Christians believe, however, that faith cannot come from the believer alone but requires the grace of God. This is defined as a blessing from God which is undeserved. This is offered freely to all people but we exercise free will in either accepting or rejecting it. God wants everyone to come to faith but does not force people to do so as this would interfere with our free-will.

Image: John Hain

Salvation is also achieved through worship and love. Worship may include prayer, bible reading, attending services and receiving holy communion – at the Last Supper Jesus instructed his followers to eat bread and drink wine “in remembrance of me”. Christians have long debated the relative importance of “faith” and “works” - it was a large element in the reformation by Martin Luther in the Sixteenth Century.

Christian love takes the form of agape – selfless love. This can be summed up as love of neighbour – “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. It is about loving without counting the cost or expecting anything in return. Jesus said that “greater love has no man than to lay down his life for a friend”. This, after all, is what Jesus did, not just for his friends but for all of sinful humanity.

Image: Geralt

These ideas about Salvation do of course raise interesting questions and objections - Why are all humans affected by the “Original Sin” of Adam? This does not make biological or moral sense. Why did God need to be elaborately incarnated and die to restore the relationship? Why bother with the whole of the suffering of human history if God is Omnipotent - he could have just made Adam and Eve not to sin! And many have argued that Salvation is just wishful thinking to help us deal with psychological and social traumas that we face in our daily lives - these religious ideas are just designed to make us feel there is some purpose to our suffering and that it will all be ok in the end.

What do you think? Is the Christian view of Salvation credible? Or wishful thinking?

The Christian view of salvation is nicely summed up in this video animated by Rich Oster and narrated by Fiona Green:

Word Of The Week: w/c 07/09/15 - Gnosis

5/9/2015

Knowledge of Spiritual mysteries

Image: frankbeckerde

Welcome back for a new academic year!

Gnosis is the greek word for knowledge and often refers to spiritual knowledge that is supplied by a particular religious group. The most famous group of early Christians that match this description are now known to scholars as the Gnostics: they are a collection of early Christian sects who were eventually persecuted out of existence by the Church Fathers and Roman Emperors. The Gnostics stressed the importance of knowledge (gnosis) over faith (pistis) - this knowledge gave the knower the ability to gain everlasting life after death, however it was secretive and only could be gained once members had undergone complex initiation. This went against the mainstream belief that Christianity was open to all and was received through revelation rather than instruction.

Image: geralt

Although the Gnostics were ultimately unsuccessful and hounded out of existence they were onto an important idea; knowledge is power. Nothing is more valuable than knowing facts and concepts; they are the building blocks of what Aristotle called Pronesis (practical wisdom).

Learning facts has become rather underrated in the modern world; sometimes people suggest that transferable skills are more important such as empathy and lateral thinking; but knowledge should not be neglected. For example imagine that you were a businesswoman trying to seal the deal on a new Oil Contact in Saudi Arabia. Whilst being empathetic and being able to think quickly on your feet will be important in securing the deal, knowledge of the religious customs of the region will also be very important. Should you wear a headscarf? What times during the week should you arrange the meeting to best suit the prayers of the clients? What if it is the month of Ramadan? If you do not know these things then you might jepordise the entire operation by causing unnecessary offence.

This is of course only one example but the adage is true in numerous situations. And even in the more mundane life of GCSEs and A-levels it is all very well and good to know how to structure an essay or plan your exam answer, but without any facts to populate the essay you are not going to earn many marks!

What Gnosis do you hope to learn this year and how will your studies in R&P impact upon your future life?