By Bert Hetebry

Truth be told, we really would like other people to be a little more like we are. We have a seemingly inherent bias for others to be like us; to think as we do, to live as we do, to behave as we do, to believe what we believe.

We really are quite unaware of these biases, or discriminations, until we are confronted by them.

Normal behaviour and normal beliefs are those we grew up with, the values our parents and extended family espoused defined normal for us as we grew up and it is not until we were confronted by difference that we actually noticed that not everybody is like us. The ‘normal’ we grew up with was reinforced by decisions such as whether we were churched or not, the religion of our family and how strongly that was held, the schools we attended, whether they were public or private, whether it was for a higher standard of education or whether it was to confirm the ‘rightness’ of the faith the family held.

Those outside our definition of normal were seen as different, somehow less than us.

The important question which flows from this is how we deal with difference.

Each morning I try to walk on a nearby beach. Low tide is a particular favourite time as there is more beach and access to parts which are otherwise underwater or pummelled by incoming waves. And most mornings are met with greetings from other early morning beach walkers.

This morning I was greeted by a Christian lady who immediately started talking about the wonders her God presents for us to enjoy, the peacefulness of walking in a natural environment, to take in the freshness of the day. When questioned about her God she went into His judgement of people, how believers are ‘children of God’ (and all that implies for those who are not). She is heaven bound, apparently.

I raised with her the question about God condoning genocide, and it appears that it’s OK; those who are not God’s people are not protected by His laws. She is totally with Israel in their fight with the ‘terrorist’ Palestinians. There was an immediate reference to the October attack but using that as a defence against the continuing atrocity against those in Gaza and the West Bank.

I then asked her about marriage equality, is it OK for homosexuals to marry? Apparently not if they are God’s children, but if they were God’s children the question of their homosexuality would not arise.

The sense of separateness, exclusiveness, sanctimoniousness was palpable. If only people would listen to the Word of God and (probably) be just like her, the world would be a better place.

I have heard this time and again throughout my life. Intolerance masked by a sense of piety, a belief in one’s absolute rightness. From a Calvinist view, the belief that people are ‘elect of God’, chosen by God to be His. Or that Baptism marks one for life as one of God’s children. Or all sins are forgiven so long as one confesses and goes through the sanctions insisted by the priest, (how many ‘Hail Mary’s’ that one?) or to be circumcised on the eighth day after the boy was born, or whatever marking, visible or invisible is used to claim to be one of God’s people.

And so we have the question of who may teach our children, and it seems that the various religious bodies which control faith-based schools are adamant that they have the right, demand the right to be selective, discriminatory in choosing who should teach at their schools.

The right to discriminate, to reinforce the values of the religious body which operate the school.

How well has that gone in the past? Recently an expose of an elite school in Sydney where a teacher was employed despite it being known that he had been emailing female students, suggesting sex… threesomes, comments about genitalia... nothing to see here, he was going to teach at an all-boys school, so that stuff would not be an issue. I suppose he ‘ticked every box’ regarding religious orthodoxy.

Or when we reflect on the Royal Commission into child abuse, no red flags are raised about staff in any number of church-based organisations, schools included.

The screening of staff is necessary, standards need to be established, not based on some religious orthodoxy but rather on the teaching ability and interaction the teacher demonstrates with their students, that quality teaching becomes the criteria for employment. Not some difference which is demonstrated by adherence to a particular faith and how that difference becomes a basis for judgement and discrimination. But this of course will not be reflected in the way students are treated, especially those who are different… be it different colour of skin, different view on sexuality, different view of creation of evolution and so forth… of course it won’t, will it?

Why is there even a need for the right to discriminate? Have these educated people not learned anything from history? To entrench discrimination at the level of teacher is to entrench the orthodoxy which allows contempt for this who are different. Surely the differences which are in the communities we live in need to be reflected in everyday life, and that includes in the school environment. Otherwise we reinforce intolerance, we hide behind a veil of piety that allows for discrimination and judgement on people who do not conform to the rigidity of the orthodoxy of the school or its religious controlling body.