Some of you may be aware of the court case that made the news yesterday of a 14 year old Weslh Sikh girl who won the right to wear her Kara to school despite their no jewellery rule. This has been met with some of the most wideranging comments on the bbc radio 1 "newsbeat" website. People's comments range from
"Why is a 14 year old girl allowed to dictate what goes on. She is still a child and should abide by the rules, not demand things change to suit her."
"I think the point here that everyone is missing is the fact that the girl and her parents were well aware of the rules surrounduing the wearing of jewellery before she stepped through the school gates;"
"Someone wrote that while it is OK for this Sikh girl to wear her religious jewelery, because it is a religious tenet,' no one should be allowed to wear a cross in schools, because that is not a religious tenet. Come on, all you Christian, put the laws to the test - all turn up wearing crosses tomorrow, and let's see what happens"
Now I am no more educated on the Sikh Religion than most of the average Joes that walk down the street on a daily basis, but I do think that perhaps there are some things that are being missed in this whole debacle. As a liberal progressive Christian, I fail to see why it is offensive that we allow others to practice their faith in the way their faith demands. People say we are a "Christian" Country and oh how I wish that were true. It is true that we are Post Christian. There was a time, yes, when everyone went to church on a sunday. When school rules were school rules and when those of us who didn't like what we were hearing didn't have a leg to stand on because we were kids and we ought to know our place. Now we live in a different world. We live in a country with 12 year olds getting pregnant, where it is necessary to give sex education to 4 year olds, where members of the NHS are asked to remove cruicifixes so that they don't offend anyone and where children win court cases over religious symbolism.
As a Christian I do not understand entirely what the Kura means to a Sikh, but having had a sikh friend in Switzerland I know that it is a very important part of their faith. As one of the 5 K's it is an important thing for a Sikh to wear. Christians choose to wear a cross and to say that we wear it because we are commanded to would be wholly unjustified - I mean for goodness sake some churh denominations still can't agree on whether or not it is infact sinful to have one on. (See the reformation debate on imagery)
My bugbear here is that I fail to see why something like this made it to court. Why, when by their own description, the kura is made of steel so as not to be an "ornament" is it such a big deal that the girl wear it. Why does it matter to the school? I just don't get it. I used to wear my cross to school under my shirt. We weren't allowed jewellery there either - i Know, i'm bad.
We are frightened all the time that what we say will offend, we are constantly worried as a people that we may irritate or upset our neighbour and so must be politically correct and are happy to condemn cases like these as they seem to be a "totaly waste of money" but, were the shoe to be on the other foot, would we not fight our corner with every fibre of our being? Would you not stand up and defend something that you believed to be true?
One comment on the newsbeat site said that it was offensive to Athiests that this religious bangle could be worn - i'm sorry, What? Why? I'm not offended that you don't believe, so why should you be offended by my jewellery, unless of course it makes you uncomfortable in your position!
Anyway - she won, she gets to wear the Kura, and all the bored people who have nothing better to do, can go online and call her names for having the courage to stand up for what she believes in. Centuries ago, people from our Christian nation were given sainthood for standing up for what they belive in - now we just slate them.
I guess I just don't get it. I want to live in a world where people can be who they are - who God made them. I want to live in a place where everyone has the right to their own opinion, to happiness and to freedom of religion - where this right is an actual tangable right and not a ideal that is all to quickly dispensed with when it doesn't suit. I don't know if that place exists, but I can always pray.
2 comments:
It seems such a far cry from my schooling... part of me thinks it was better, even if you got hell from your peers about it, you got a lot of respect for your teachers and the older students. We wore whatever the hell we liked and no one gave a damn! It got to the point with me that no one expected me to wear something 'normal' and if I did then people were more likely to comment. Regardless of the peerpressure and stuff like that, it was possible to express what you believed in through your clothes/makeup/jewellery and everyone respected that even if they didn't agree with it.
I think alot of it has to do with the fact that modern society is so focussed on MY rights that they unintentionally totally disregard the rights of others. The "were the shoe on the other foot" question I think is one that ought to be asked but rarely actually is as people are far too interested on what does this persons actions mean to me, in my life rather than what do these person's actions mean to them in theirs.
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