Prejudice And Discrimination Coursework Essay Research Paper

Prejudice And Discrimination Coursework Essay, Research Paper

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PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION:

Prejudice and discrimination can be shown in many different forms such as colour, race, gender or discrimination. I will be looking at what Roman Catholics´ attitudes are towards prejudice and discrimination and how I think they might support victims of this type of crime. I will be referring to the bible to aid my answers and what fellow Christians have to say on the matter. The recent example I will be looking at is Martin Luther King´s work in opposing racism; which is a colour issue. In the Southern states of America in the 1950´s and 1960´s discrimination and prejudice against black people was very common indeed. People in the black community feared that the situation was going to escalate and become like that of South Africa where black people´s earnings were only about half of those of whites. Many blacks did not have the right to vote and certain public places were said to be for “whites only” Martin Luther King was a Christian campaigned endlessly for equal treatments of blacks and whites. He refused to support the idea that white people were all evil, as some black radicals believed. Instead, he taught that Christian love was the way forward. “Love,” he said, is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. Jesus was Martin´s inspiration; King supported non-violent protests and said that it was the way forward. He famously spoke about non-violence and I quote

“ If he does not beat you-good! If he beats you…you develop the inner conviction of accepting the blows without retaliating”

Martin often stated that non-violence worked for Ghandi, the great Indian leader, in getting the British to leave India and this is why he consistently said that the black community should not fight back no matter how much they were provoked. In Montgomery black people could only sit at the back of buses and even the old had to give up their seat if a white person asked them. Martin Luther King organised a “bus boycott. This movement became known as the Civil Rights movement and in 1960 Martin Luther King became its leader. In 1956 the government passed a law making it illegal to segregate people on buses. This is an example of King using a non-violent method to get his point across and as you can see it worked as the government passed a law. One of the most famous speeches Martin Luther King said was and I quote. “ I have a dream that one day God´s children, blacks, whites, Jews, Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the black people´s old song “Free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.” In 1968 a white man called James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King dead in Memphis, he was only 39. The example of Martin Luther King is a colour issue because as you have read above, black people were treated very badly and were discriminated against in a very bad way just because they have a different colour of skin. You could compare the black people who were treated badly to leprosy sufferers in the time of Jesus. In the bible it says how the lepers were sent away and left on there own in an isolated area where they were cut off from the rest of the world and were treated badly. Jesus went to the leprosy sufferer´s houses and healed them and this suggests to me that Jesus treated everyone the same and thought as everyone whether a different colour, race or gender completely equal. WHAT ROMAN CATHOLIC ATTITUDES TO THIS MIGHT BE. Roman Catholics are supposed to take their views from the bible therefore when I make a statement about their attitude I will try to back up my claim from the bible. God´s people including Roman Catholics have a special responsibility to treat people of other races or colour in the right way, for in the bible it says “Do not ill-treat foreigners who are living in your land. Treat them as you would a fellow-Israelite, and love them as you love yourselves. Remember that you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus) 19:33-34) Roman Catholics believe no one should look down on anybody else because of their status in life and all should be treated equally. For in the Bible it says:

“I now understand… that God has no favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts10: 34)

Paul´s letters in the bible rule out racism altogether. He told the Galatians that what matters is faith. It is not the Jews who are Abraham´s true descendants, but those who have faith in Christ. “So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free men, between men and women, you are all one in union with Jesus Christ” (Galatians 3:28) “There is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves and free men” (Colossians3: 11) Christians and Roman Catholics alike would say that, if there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free men, men and women, there is no distinction either between black and white! Jesus often taught that God´s kingdom was open to everybody. It did not matter whether or not you were Jewish. What mattered was how you responded to Jesus´ invitation to God´s kingdom. R