As lilwatchergirl recently joked, I'm currently a bit obsessed with the concept of Equal Opportunities.
Suffice to say, this isn't the first time I've contended with such issues (suffice to say, because I don't want to be identified) and I've had plenty of opportunities to think about such things.
I think that the concepts of equality and diversity and the legal construct of Equal Opportunities is something with which the Church has yet to properly contend. In my opinion, the Church either
a) needs to produce a cohesive and dignified narrative about why Equal Opportunities does not accord with Christian principles and how it could run society better or
b)needs to embrace Equal Opportunities and lead the way in inclusion, tolerance, anti-discrimination and fair employment.
And currently, the Church does neither. There was the furore over the Incitement to Religious Hatred and how it would stop an evangelical preacher asserting that the Muslims will burn in hell... and then there was whatever the Bill was that was supposed to be able to force Christians to employ Buddhists as their vicars... then the particularly vicious kerfuffle earlier this year about how the Sexual Orientation Regulations would force a fundamentalist hotelier to allow a gay couple to dirty his sheets. Time after time after time after time the church gets dragged along kicking and screaming and is forced to stop scare-mongering cheap moral panic and obey the law.
But perhaps I should give the Church more credit. I think the Church realised long ago what a postmodern and pluralistic society has not yet grasped: one cannot legislate for attitudes. People will act far more readily according to their beliefs, feelings and attitudes than according to external rules imposed up them, and maybe there's little point pretending otherwise. Maybe the Church exposes what the rest of us daren't say, which is that Equal Opportunities legislation promises far more than it delivers and even, perhaps, delivers very little.
So where does one go from here? I don't know.
Suffice to say, this isn't the first time I've contended with such issues (suffice to say, because I don't want to be identified) and I've had plenty of opportunities to think about such things.
I think that the concepts of equality and diversity and the legal construct of Equal Opportunities is something with which the Church has yet to properly contend. In my opinion, the Church either
a) needs to produce a cohesive and dignified narrative about why Equal Opportunities does not accord with Christian principles and how it could run society better or
b)needs to embrace Equal Opportunities and lead the way in inclusion, tolerance, anti-discrimination and fair employment.
And currently, the Church does neither. There was the furore over the Incitement to Religious Hatred and how it would stop an evangelical preacher asserting that the Muslims will burn in hell... and then there was whatever the Bill was that was supposed to be able to force Christians to employ Buddhists as their vicars... then the particularly vicious kerfuffle earlier this year about how the Sexual Orientation Regulations would force a fundamentalist hotelier to allow a gay couple to dirty his sheets. Time after time after time after time the church gets dragged along kicking and screaming and is forced to stop scare-mongering cheap moral panic and obey the law.
But perhaps I should give the Church more credit. I think the Church realised long ago what a postmodern and pluralistic society has not yet grasped: one cannot legislate for attitudes. People will act far more readily according to their beliefs, feelings and attitudes than according to external rules imposed up them, and maybe there's little point pretending otherwise. Maybe the Church exposes what the rest of us daren't say, which is that Equal Opportunities legislation promises far more than it delivers and even, perhaps, delivers very little.
So where does one go from here? I don't know.
2 comments:
Well, there really is a lot of theology of equality out there - not least Liberation Theology, but also the more minor theologies that have been influenced by that, from feminist theology to queer theology. One day, I swear, I'll get around to reading them all...
But I suppose I'm more interested in practice than theory (for once), in this case. What would an Equal Opps church look like, do you think? I'm almost drawing a blank, it seems so opposed to everything that the Church stands for...
I also wonder what Jesus, the great Liberator, thinks about it our Equal Opps record.
So much, so much I want to read!!!And Jesus makes has views on the matter so screamingly obvious that maybe the question to be asked is why the Church has such a problem with what He taught.
An Equal Opps church, hmmmmm
- the sacraments would be available to all. Everyone would be invited to the communion table
- they'd take Luther's concept of the Priesthood of All Believers seriously. Everyone would be allowed to lead service and preach. Ex-offenders, too, provided they were supervised around children and other vulnerable people
- there'd be diversity in the forms of service, worship and activities, catering for the needs and interests of all
What else? Back to you - or anyone ele reading...
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