Prejudice and Equality - Racism and Gender

Biblical Teachings

• "Do not take advantage of a foreigner" - Duteronomy
• "There is neither jew nor greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus"  - Paul, Galetians
• "Do not show favouritism" - James

• "From one human being he created all races" - Acts

• People racially prejudiced believe some ethnic groups = superior to others
• Think it is possible to form judgement on someone just by looking at them
• Make stereotypes of different ethnic groups + all people in that group eg muslims all have the same characteristics

Reasons you might be racist

• May have been brought up by racist parents
• Sometimes comes from fear- people= afraid of things they don't know/ understand eg different customs/languages. Makes them feel powerful
• Sometimes formed in areas of poverty and unemployment- look for someone to blame
• Greed- try to justify getting wealthier on grounds other people from different ethnic groups= not as important, not as human therefore don't need fair treatment

Negative

• Give people poorer housing/ inferior education/ fewer employment oppurtunities
• Sometimes involves physical harm/ 'ethnic cleansing' ---> trying to wipe out a whole race eg. Holocaust

Positive

• Missionary work
• Fighting against racist practices eg the apartheid
• Organise boycotts/ speeches/ marches/ demonstrations/ campaigns so governments forced to change rules

• England- Shakespeare time---> Jews stereotyped as sly+money grabbing 
• Slave trade- black people taken away from homes and packed into ships like livestock to be sold as slaves to white people& treated as property
• Some slave owners from Church and justified it by saying black people= not completley human
• Apartheid in SA
  • Designed to keep white and black people apart and gave white people priveliges at the expense of blacks
  • White people took most of the land for themselves even tho there= less than 20% whites in SA
  • Black people left in crowded conditions with poor housing/ education and medical care
  • V. little employment oppurtunities
  • Apartheid doctrines= based in Dutch Reformed Church in SA which taught black people= inferior to whites

• Arrested and sent to prison and released 26 yrs later
• Over next few years racist laws were repealed
• Nelson elected president + apartheid abolished

• Convinced he should not use violence to deal with racism
• Tried to put into practice messages from Bible "turn the other cheek"
• Organised bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up seat until bus rules were changed- marked the start of the US Civil Rights Movement with MLK it's leader
• Organised boycotts/ campaigns/ marches/ demonstrations/ gave speeches
• Even though he was bombed and family recieved death threats he continued fighting
• Shot dead in 1961 but Civil Rights Movement continued

Bible Teachings

"Don't show favouritism" - James

"From one human being he created all races" - could be related to gender depending on how you quote it

"Each of the two sexes is an image of the powerful and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way"

United Reformed Church and Salvation Army

• Always accepted women on equal terms with men in all aspects of ministry and leadership

Baptists and Church of England

• Changed views in C20th -----> in past leadership was kept only for men but Baptists started to ordain women in  the1920'sand CofE in 1994

RCC and Eastern Orthodox

• Women are not alllowed to become priests
• Teach when eucharist = celebrated, priest represents Christ and so it = innapropriate and disrespectful for a woman to take on this role
• Believe women are not inferior, but are different
• Women have own skills+ talents that can be celebrated eg motherhood ( v. highly regarded)
• RCC could argue that they value the role of women v. much as can be seen in respect shown to Virgin Mary

• In the past, it was nearly always a fact that that women were inferior to men
• Some people think because of differences between men and women, girls deserve to have fewer choices/ do half the worlds work for lower pay and be judged on their appearance as objects rather than with dignity
• Society in UK put women at a disadvantage- birth control was not easily available so spent most of their lives looking after childern and doing domestic work

• After WW2 and inflation etc it  became more acceptable for women to go to work
• 1975 brought the Sex Discrimination Act making it illegal to discriminate against job applications because of gender. 
• Some churches do not allow women to play an equal role in the churches leadership
• Some people believe it's unreasonable for women to expect same kinds of careers as men because pregnancy takes up so much energy and attention and they can't expect employers to be happy about time taken outfor ante-natal care maternity leave and childcare
• Others believe men and women should share parental responsibility and employers should make the effort to suppiort family life by providing flexible working hours