I’m responsible for diversity and inclusion issues in my workplace of 600 people, and I’ve recently conducted an anonymous survey looking at, among other things, people’s religious beliefs. We want to ensure we are making sufficient provision for different faith groups in terms of our facilities and the flexibility of our working practices.
People had to tick the relevant box to reflect their religious belief. There were about 14 choices, including “None” and “Other”, with a space for people to write what belief system they follow if they had ticked the latter.
Obviously one of the choices was “Christian”. I was amazed to see that around a dozen people had ticked “Other” and then in the space they had written “Catholic”, “Church of England”, “Protestant” etc.
Of course I don’t know who they are, otherwise I think I would go and shake them! Do we have to be so divisive? Are we not all Christians? Depressing, really.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Oy. It is depressing, but I bet you’d find similar things even in Islam or Judaism. So many sects. So little time. Eh?
Ah labels. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em it seems. They tells us a shorthand about each other, are helpful for “classification” and “demographics,” and meanwhile put us in nice tidy boxes for each other…nice tidy boxes that if we allow them to, mean that we don’t have to think about each other as individuals anymore, but simply as “them,” or “those people.”
Well, that’s my general mini-rant on the whole label issue. (Be it known that I use them as much as anyone probably, despite my distaste….) As to us all being Christian…. Sigh. I know where you’re coming from Tess, and yes, I think we’re on the same wavelength, but….
What is a “Christian” anyway? I may call myself one, but I confess that by any traditional standard of orthodoxy or what Christians through the ages have defined as “Christian”…I’m not one….
Your next to last question of “Do we have to be so divisive?” puts me in mind of the question that an African-American man named Rodney King asked on national television here in the US quite a few years ago, after race riots broke out in Los Angeles following the acquittal of police officers who had gotten caught on film beating the crap out of him. In an attempt to stop the violence, Rodney King pleaded “Can we all get along? Can we get along?”
The answer was no, sadly. Sadly, it seems it mostly always has been, even in the institution that claims to be founded on the principles of Jesus, who came proclaiming a kingdom of love….
Whoa, you really got me going. This is the longest comment I’ve left on a blogpost in a very long time. Sorry, I didn’t mean to start preaching, or get overly jaded and cynical on you (though I do tend towards that….)
Peace to you, my Christian friend.
sadly, it is very telling of our divisive culture.
Thank you, Maya, A and Lucy.
A, I do know what you mean, and I think you know my feelings on traditional standard orthodoxy. Yes, I remember the LA riots, and of course race was another of the questions in the diversity survey. I guess it’s a bit like the censuses (is that the plural of census, it doesn’t look right?) that most countries carry out. Maybe one day we won’t need labels. Maybe we should drop them and then we’ll find we didn’t need them all along. Hmmm.
It is true even among Buddhists, if that is any consolation. Alas, sometimes people were happy to identify themselves as Christian and were told they needn’t apply because they belonged to a parallel faith community. Sad, really.