60 Paisley Street, Victoria 3011, Australia
A rough guide to our location in Footscray, Melbourne
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60 Paisley Street, Victoria 3011, Australia A rough guide to our location in Footscray, Melbourne
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Pictures from the family camp at the Campaspe Downs country resort
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Sermon on International Day of Tolerance November 7, 2004 Rev Rainer Schack The mission statement of
multicultural Footscray Baptist Church reads: “The FBC celebrates the
God-given diversity of cultures. We welcome you to join us on the journey of
faith, whatever your race, religion, capability, gender, or sexuality.” As Christians, we should be
humble, but I have to admit, I am proud of our mission statement. I am proud of it, because we
accepted this mission statement unanimously in a church meeting about one and a
half years ago. I am proud of it, because it
expresses in a radical way God’s unconditional welcome and love of every human
being, no matter whether he or she
is Asian, Arab, or Aussie, no matter whether he or she
is Muslim, Hindu or Christian, no matter whether he or she
is gifted with more or less or special abilities, no matter whether he or she
is male or female or of mixed genders, and no matter whether he or
she is gay, straight, bi-sexual or trans-sexual. God loves every human being,
whether God-fearing or lost. And as God’s people we are
challenged to radiate this unconditional love of God to every human being,
particularly to those who believe they are not loved, not accepted, not
respected. Tuesday, November 16, is the
International Day of Tolerance. The United Nations
Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has identified that
“intolerance is on the increase everywhere and that it is killing on a massive
scale. … Intolerance is increasingly seen as a major threat to democracy,
peace and security.” Intolerance is dangerous,
because it has the potential to kill. Intolerance often drives
people into isolation, depression, self-hatred, suicide, mental illness,
criminal and violent behavior. And yet, intolerance is not
just “out there” in the world, intolerance is often found close to home, in
our churches, in our families, and in various ways in each one of us. Let us listen now to some
stories of how people we know have experienced intolerance: Interview of Kathy, &
Reuel I think the stories we have
just heard show that intolerance can be very subtle, but it is nevertheless very
destructive. In Isaiah 2 we learn about
God’s dream of Shalom, God’s dream of peace, which embraces all peoples. “God shall judge between
the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” God’s dream of Shalom
seems to be even more distant now after September 11, and the illegal war in
Iraq. Indeed, intolerance has
grown particularly towards Muslims and people from Middle-Eastern background. On the other hand, we have
become quite tolerant towards the Governments’ lies on Weapons of Mass
Destruction in Iraq and the Children Overboard Affair. We are quite tolerant of our
Government violating the Rights of the Child as we accept the children of asylum
seekers being locked up in prisons. And many of us are probably
quite pleased or at least don’t care much about the Government’s decision to
bar gay and lesbian couples from marriage, violating their human rights and
driving them further into isolation. Some of the issues just
mentioned highlight how challenging and complex the issue of tolerance and
intolerance is. How do we work out what we
should tolerate, and what or who needs to be confronted? As Christians, we are
challenged to learn first of all from Jesus’ example: Jesus embraced all of
humanity, both the respectable & the marginalized people of his society. He had table fellowship with
the scribes and the sinners. However, Jesus was more
supportive of those who were considered “outsiders”, sinners, or unbelievers
(Gentiles) than he was of those who were considered righteous. While Jesus spent time with
the righteous, that is those in power, he often challenged their exclusive and
destructive behaviour towards marginalized people. I believe we have to learn
how to respect people even though we don’t feel comfortable with what they
believe and how they live their lives. Respecting people does not
mean that we cannot challenge what we, or the ones we perceive as “other,
believe and do. But we might have to learn
how to agree to disagree without cutting off ties and resorting to disrespectful
behavior. The UNESCO identifies five
steps to counter intolerance: 1.
Fighting intolerance requires law: Each
Government is responsible for enforcing human rights laws, for banning and
punishing hate crimes and discrimination against minorities, whether these are
committed by State officials, private organizations or individuals. The State
must also ensure equal access to courts, human rights commissioners or
ombudsmen, so that people do not take justice into their own hands and resort to
violence to settle their disputes. 2.
Fighting intolerance requires education:
Laws
are necessary but not sufficient for countering intolerance in individual
attitudes. Intolerance is very often rooted in ignorance and fear: fear of the
unknown, of the other, other cultures, nations, religions. Intolerance is
also closely linked to an exaggerated sense of self-worth and pride, whether
personal, national or religious. These notions are taught and learned at an
early age. Therefore, greater emphasis needs to be placed on educating more and
better. Greater efforts need to be made to teach children about tolerance and
human rights, about other ways of life. Children should be encouraged at home
and in school to be open-minded and curious. Education
is a life-long experience and does not begin or end in school. Endeavours to
build tolerance through education will not succeed unless they reach all age
groups, and take place everywhere: at home, in schools, in the workplace, in
law-enforcement and legal training, and not least in entertainment and on the
information highways. 3.
Fighting intolerance requires access to information: Intolerance
is most dangerous when it is exploited to fulfil the political and territorial
ambitions of an individual or groups of individuals. Hatemongers often begin by
identifying the public's tolerance threshold. They then develop fallacious
arguments, lie with statistics and manipulate public opinion with misinformation
and prejudice. The most efficient way to limit the influence of hatemongers is
to develop policies that generate and promote press freedom and press pluralism,
in order to allow the public to differentiate between facts and opinions. 4.
Fighting intolerance requires individual awareness: Intolerance
in a society is the sum-total of the intolerance of its individual members.
Bigotry, stereotyping, stigmatizing, insults and racial jokes are examples of
individual expressions of intolerance to which some people are subjected daily.
Intolerance breeds intolerance. It leaves its victims in pursuit of revenge. In
order to fight intolerance individuals should become aware of the link between
their behavior and the vicious cycle of mistrust and violence in society. Each
one of us should begin by asking: am I a tolerant person? Do I stereotype
people? Do I reject those who are different from me? Do I blame my problems on
'them'? 5.
Fighting intolerance requires local solutions: Many
people know that tomorrow's problems will be increasingly global but few realize
that solutions to global problems are mainly local, even individual. When
confronted with an escalation of intolerance around us, we must not wait for
governments and institutions to act alone. We are all part of the solution. We
should not feel powerless for we actually possess an enormous capacity to wield
power. Nonviolent action is a way of using that power-the power of people. The
tools of nonviolent action-putting a group together to confront a problem, to
organize a grassroots network, to demonstrate solidarity with victims of
intolerance, to discredit hateful propaganda-are available to all those who want
to put an end to intolerance, violence and hatred. (Quoted
from www.unesco.org/tolerance) In
our vision statement we have committed ourselves to working towards respecting
all people and challenging injustice: Under
the section entitled “Mission” point 5 in our Vision Statement reads as
follows: “God
has given dignity to every human being. We will commit ourselves to treat every
person with respect, and to help restore that respect wherever it has been
violated, particularly among those whom society has marginalized.” In
adopting this Vision Statement we have agreed to live according to this
commitment. Let
us be self-critical to make sure we don’t become part of the life-destructive
forces of intolerance. Let
us make sure we follow Jesus’ example in embracing all of humanity, but
particularly those who suffer from isolation for various reasons. May
God’s Kingdom come, Shalom. |
