Tuesday 24 February 2009

Diversity 8 - IMPORTANT!

Most white people, including myself, have thought that we have a level playing field. We have believed that legislation in the 70s and since has taken away any bias and may have thought that some people had a chip on their shoulder…
It’s not true. It is not a level playing field and the evidence for this is found in the areas of employment, interaction with the police, educational opportunities, wealth and inheritance. When we touch these areas, we find ourselves dealing with issues of pain and anger.

While in South Africa, I visited Nelson Mandela’s cell on Robin Island. Our guide was a young black man who had been in prison on the island and was released after the fall of apartheid. I asked him why he still worked on the island and he told me that on his release he had gone back to his township home, but he was not famous, there was no counselling for him, no-one understood what he had gone through and there was no work. And this was the only job available. He was a free man but was living on an island that had been his prison. That was his legacy.

To learn more about building multi-cultural churches in the UK… Understanding Worldviews and Cultural Strongholds Conference… at King’s Church… Sat 14th March… Speaker – Dave Devenish…Further details elsewhere on the King’s website…Booking forms available from
office@kingscentre.org.uk and 020 8690 4646