A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

EqualityKey Terms:

Equality – the right of different groups of people to have a similar social status and receive the same treatment

Prejudice – an unfair judgement of someone, usually on the basis of one feature about them

Discrimination – treating someone worse than others because of one feature about them

Equality is one of those concepts that everybody thinks they understand, but it is difficult to define precisely. Many people confuse the ideas of equal treatment and equal opportunity.

Equal treatment: Equal opportunity:

Task

Study the picture above and explain what the differences are between equal treatment and equal opportunity.

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A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

Secular Perspectives on EqualityThe understanding of most scholars on the meaning of equality is: When two people have equal status, they should be treated equally.

This sort of definition originates from Plato: “treat like cases as like”.

Although older societies had assumed that humans were unequal and hierarchical by nature, for several centuries philosophers have claimed that humans are by nature equal. For example:

Kant – it is immoral to treat a person as a means to an end. All people should be treated as ends in themselves.

Nagel - Fundamental equality means that people are alike in important relevant and specified respects alone, and not that they are all generally the same or can be treated in the same way.

Equality Act 2010

In the UK, our laws on equality and preventing discrimination have been recently combined into the Equality Act. It makes it illegal to discriminate against people because of the following “protected characteristics”:

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A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

Significant events in the progress of racial equality

In the USA:

Before the 1950s, most public facilities were segregated.

1964 The Civil Rights Act outlawed racial segregation in all public places.

2008 Presidential Election – Barack Obama was elected the first black president.

In South Africa:

1948-1991 system of apartheid outlawed mixing of white and non-white people.

1963-1990 Nelson Mandela is imprisoned for anti-apartheid protests.

1985 The UK and USA impose sanctions on South Africa to persuade them to end apartheid.

1994 Nelson Mandela is elected the first black president.

In the UK:

1958 Notting Hill Riots – racially motivated riots targeting black homes in London.

1963 Bristol Bus Boycott – people refused to use city buses as a protest against the policy to only employ white bus drivers.

1965 The Race Relations Act is the first UK legislation to outlaw racial discrimination.

1976 The Commission for Racial Equality is set up

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A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

2010 The Equality Act (see above)

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A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

Christian perspectives on equality

Genesis 1:27

Psalm 139:13

A central teaching in Christianity is that all people are made in the image of God, or imago dei. It is not just certain people, but all people. Not people of a certain race, or those who are able-bodied. So every human has this in common. And each person should be respected because they share in this feature of God.

Likewise, if we are carefully and intricately put together by God in the womb, we can’t disregard people because of one characteristic. Every characteristic (gender, disability, race etc.) was planned that way by God.

Both of these passages show that being human is intrinsically valuable. It doesn’t matter what type of human you are – just being human makes you sacred (important to God). This idea is known as the Sanctity of Life.

Jesus himself modelled this teaching, when he publically spent time with those who were excluded from society (known as outcasts), treating them the same as anyone else. For example:

Children (Matthew 19:13-15)

A sinful woman (Luke 7:36-50)

A tax collector (Mark 2:13-17)

A bleeding woman (Mark 5:25-34)

A demon-possessed man (Mark 5:1-20)

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A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

A Samaritan woman (John 4:1-41)

Christian teachings on raceThe Bible is very clear that people should not be treated differently because of their race. Jesus himself included people of different ethnic backgrounds, who were outcast by others (see Luke 10:30-35, the story of the Good Samaritan).

There are several teachings that make the expectation of equal treatment even more explicit:

Acts 17:26

Galatians 3:28

Leviticus 19:33-34

Malachi 2:10

Luke 10:30-35

Task

Visit the following pages and take notes on these different Christian responses to racism:

http://request.org.uk/issues/social-issues/prejudice-and-the-bible/

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A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

http://request.org.uk/issues/social-issues/case-study-apartheid/

Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King is probably the most famous person associated with the American civil rights movement. King was active from the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 to 1956 until his murder in April 1968. To many Martin Luther King epitomised what the civil rights campaign was all about and he brought massive international cover to the movement.

Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15th, 1929. The church was very much a part of his life as both his father and grandfather had been Baptist preachers. They themselves were involved in the civil rights movement. By the standards of the time, King came from a reasonably comfortable background and after graduating from college in 1948 he was not sure about which profession to join. He considered a career in medicine and law but rejected both and joined the Baptist Church. He studied at the Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. It was while studying here, that King learned about the non-violent methods used by Mahatma Gandhi against the British in India. King became convinced that such methods would be of great value to the civil rights movement.

After leaving Crozer, King got married to Coretta Scott. He became a Baptist pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He was in Montgomery when Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat to a white man, an action that started Bus Boycott. He was appointed the president of the Montgomery Improvement Association which was created during the boycott and he became a prominent leader of the boycott – even driving some of the black community to work as the buses had been boycotted. King was arrested for starting a boycott (an arrestable offence as a result of an obscure law that was very rarely used) and fined. His house was fire-bombed and others involved with MIA were also intimidated – but by the end of 1956, segregation had been lifted in Montgomery and bus integration had been introduced.

Another result of the boycott was the establishment of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). This organisation was committed to the use of non-violence and its motto was “Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed.” Martin Luther King was elected its president. The importance of the SCLC’s involvement was simply because the churches that represented the black population in the South were powerful organisations. Now that they had joined forces, this power was multiplied.

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A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

Not long after the conclusion of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King wrote ‘Stride Towards Freedom’. This was read by some students at Greensboro, North Carolina and they started the student sit-in of the Woolworth’s lunch counter which had a policy of not serving African-Americans. Though the students were frequently abused and assaulted, they never fought back. The same tactic – a non-violent response to violence – was also used by the Freedom Riders in their campaign to desegregate transport.

Buoyed by this response, King toured the country making speeches and urging more and more people to get involved in the civil rights movement. King had also noted the economic power that the black community had – as was seen in Montgomery. He tried to get communities to use companies/individual shop keepers etc. who were sympathetic to the civil rights campaign but also to boycott those who were not.

King also placed great faith in the power of the vote. Many black Americans in the South still faced enormous problems doing something as basic as registering to vote such was the intimidation they faced. In Mississippi, 42% of the state’s population was black but only 2% registered to vote in the 1960 election. However, more and more did register throughout the South and in 1960, their support (70%) helped to elect the Democrat John F Kennedy.

In 1963, Kennedy proposed his civil rights bill. To persuade Congress to support this bill, King, with other civil rights leaders, organised the legendary March on Washington. The march – officially the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom – was a major success. Held on August 28th, 1963, it attracted an estimated 400,000 people. The final speaker was Martin Luther King and it was here that he made his legendary ‘I Have a Dream’ speech which was heard throughout the world and did a huge amount to publicise the civil rights movement in America across the world. Congress did accept Kennedy’s civil rights bill and it became the 1964 Civil Rights Act – a far reaching act that many saw as a fitting tribute to the assassinated Kennedy.

King then campaigned to introduce a law that would guarantee the voting rights of the black community in America. This led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

King had clearly made enemies in his rise to fame. The Ku Klux Klan and other groups and individuals made repeated attacks on his home, bombed places where he or his family stayed, and constantly threatened him with violence and death.

On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead by an assassin. His death sparked off riots in many cities and 46 people were killed during these.

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A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

In March 1969, James Earl Ray was found guilty of King’s murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison. Many years after starting his sentence, Ray claimed that he was innocent and that he could not have killed King.Text taken from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-civil-rights-movement-in-america-1945-to-1968/martin-luther-king/, accessed 15/10/2017

An example of Christian teachings in

action – Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King’s revolutionary approach to the racism he faced was the direct result of his Christian faith. He not only forgave those who persecuted him, he said that he loved them.

King’s key principles were taken from the teachings of Jesus on love and forgiveness:

“Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:39)

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:34)

In his 1957 sermon “loving your enemies”, King explains how he understands these teachings and how he puts them into practice.

The other aspect of his work was his focus on non-violent protest as a method of change.

This is based on another of Jesus’ key teachings:

“You have heard that it was said ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” (Matthew 5: 38-39)

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A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

So Jesus clearly wouldn’t have wanted Christians to react violently or angrily to people like the Ku Klux Klan (as other civil rights campaigners at the time did).

Flipped Learning Task

Read the excerpts from King’s speech “Loving Your Enemies” and take note in answer to the questions on the sheet.

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A Level Religious StudiesEthics 1.2 - Equality

Assessing the Effectiveness of Martin Luther King’s approach to racism

Based on what you have learned so far, fill in the table with evidence on each side

Highly effective Not very effective

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Independent Research Task1. Read and explain the following Christian teaching on disability:

Proverbs 31:9 Luke 14:13-14 Leviticus 19:14 John 9:1-3

2. Research the life and work of Joni Eareckson Tada.