Tag: racism

Antisemitism is racist – no ifs no buts

Once again, antisemitism is in the news.  A celebrity has been sounding off on his twitter account, threatening to take on the whole Jewish community, comparing Jews to the KKK, encouraging the usual tropes about Jews controlling the world’s money. If we thought that antisemitism had gone away with the change of Labour Party leadership,… Continue reading Antisemitism is racist – no ifs no buts

If you don’t want to be racist, don’t misrepresent what black people are saying

Since George Floyd’s death, I have been fascinated to see the number of tweets, Facebook posts and articles by Christians responding to the call to “take the knee.”  Some Christians have chosen to do so, others have not and that’s the way it should be. We should not force people to take particular actions, these… Continue reading If you don’t want to be racist, don’t misrepresent what black people are saying

How (not) to let extremists win

Here is how it plays out if we are not careful.  A statue of a slave owning city father is taken down in Bristol. People then begin to talk about the unsavoury aspects of other people’s lives who have had statues put up to them, their ownership of slaves, their reference to other people in… Continue reading How (not) to let extremists win

Pride, Prejudice and Privilege in The Church

Yesterday, we talked about pride, prejudice and privilege in society. Today, I want to think more about it in the context of the church.  One church that particularly struggled with division, rivalry and pride was the church at Corinth. Right at the start of 1 Corinthians, Paul has to rebuke the church because of this. … Continue reading Pride, Prejudice and Privilege in The Church

Protest

Here’s our #AfternoonTea discussion on protests. Key points include There is a long tradition of marching and demonstrating as a means of making our voices heard. There are democratic freedoms allowing us to do this and benefits include that it gives a sense of action and participation beyond simply marking a cross at the ballot… Continue reading Protest

We need to talk about privilege, pride and prejudice

I want to reflect a little further on the issues of prejudice, racism and classism and why these matter to the church. In so doing, I want to interact with an article that Garry Williams wrote on the matter for the Pastors Academy. I want to highlight four things he raised The problem of racism… Continue reading We need to talk about privilege, pride and prejudice

#BlackLivesMatter or #AllLivesMatter ?

My wife is a teacher. As a teacher, she wants to ensure that all of the children in her classes are treated equally and fairly. However, she has discovered over the years that “treating fairly” does not mean “treating the same.” She has learnt that if the gap is to be closed for boys then… Continue reading #BlackLivesMatter or #AllLivesMatter ?

Will we show that we see and hear them?

We’ve had some uncertain and frustrating moments over the past few months on Facebook. We’ve been livestreaming and suddenly our camera view has gone dark. We honestly have not known if have been seen and heard or if we have just been talking to ourselves. It helps when people send comments to say “we can… Continue reading Will we show that we see and hear them?

Discrimination, diversity and the church

Here’s the second part of our discussion about diversity and discrimination. Today we focused more on what this looks like in the church. People who came to the UK from around the Commonwealth had often served in the forces during the war and were also asked to come to help rebuild industry. They then often… Continue reading Discrimination, diversity and the church