AO2)
One well-known religious believer that worked to et rid of racism was Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King was a Christian, Black, man who made one of the most significant changes to the rights of Blacks. He had great courage and passion to defeat segregation and racism that existed in the United States and it was his influence to all the Blacks to defy white supremacy and his belief in non-violence that lead to the success of the Civil Rights movement.
Martin Luther King campaigned endlessly to change the way that black people were treated in America. They were not treated as equal citizens. Throughout his life, Martin Luther King demonstrated his Christian faith through his work and actions. He put his faith into action in a variety of ways: He believed that all people were equal in the sight of God. He did not want black or white supremacy and in his ‘I Have a Dream speech’ emphasized:
“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of there skin, but by the sort of persons they are. I have a dream that one day …….all God’s children, black, white, Jews and 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.” He was also an advocate of non-violence and believed that violence and hatred could only be overcome by love and forgiveness. As a Christian he wanted to demonstrate Christian love (Agape). Jesus told his followers to love their enemies and do good to those who persecute them. Even when his own home was bombed and his family received death threats, Martin Luther King worked to put this teaching into practice. He did not believe in violence, but thought that this did not excuse Christians from doing nothing. He advocated the use of non-violent direct action and peaceful forms of protest to raise awareness of the plight of Black Americans. He used marches and protests etc. to get the message across. He believed that all people are children of God and are made in his image and that it is the duty of Christians to spread this message. He held that if people understood that everyone is equal in the sight of God; then disputes could be settled in a non-violent way instead of through fighting and war. Jesus taught that those who live by the sword would perish by the sword. In other words, Jesus was warning that violence only leads to more violence and death. Martin Luther King was influenced by Jesus attitude to violence and would not support violence under any circumstances. Martin Luther King practiced the Christian teaching of ‘loving your neighbour as much as you love yourself.’ He said, “Together we must learn to live as brothers or we will be forced to perish as fools.”
Martin Luther King was a religious believer who fought to get rid of racism and to bring peace to the world and to end discrimination and prejudice between people, and because of this was assassinated in 1968.
AO3)
There are many ways that one could interpret this question, but whatever angle that you take, to wholly agree or disagree would mean that you had a very narrow and black and white view. I will firstly outline the case in support of this statement and then show its weaknesses.
Initially, parents are the greatest source of authority and knowledge for most children. From very early on our parents mould us because we trust what they say or do as they do. We accept our parent’s words as law and believe what they say, as they have brought us up, and taught us most of what we know, for example; if a mother were to say that dogs were bad, then a small child would believe this, and this idea would be stuck in their minds as what their parents and guides say, overrides what other people say.
It is not just a matter of our accepting what our parents say, however. They control our environment and the people that we are exposed to, for example if our parents never associate with people of different races then it may be rare for a child to meet different people. When this happens we’re more likely to accept what people tell us as we do not get a chance to form our own opinions.
You could argue that the things that we learn from our parents early on tend to stick with us most and form us most. Religion is something that come along later and may never quite impact us in the same way. It is more of an external source. Parents tend to be a closer source to us then religion, as most of the time, especially when young, religion comes from parents, as when a child is brought up by religion it immediately sticks with it.
Another reason that one could agree with this statement is because people so often say that the source of their views, opinions or attitudes are shaped by their family.
Despite these reasons, there are many points against the statement, because although children may learn to be prejudiced from their parents, prejudice is something that can be counteracted, once children are old enough to form their own opinion or understand other sources of opinion and religion can be an equally authoritative source, it depends on the family situation, and so in some cases religion may have more of an effect then parents views. Also, religion and family are often intertwined, normally as it is parents who introduce religion to a child rather than anyone else and therefore, prejudices along with religion may be incorporated together.
Also, know matter how important parents are to us, we will always have the free will to change our views on people, and so parents cannot be blamed for the faults of children, as parents are only guides to the path of ideas that we take, and not the choosers. We are the choosers and so the choice of whether to discriminate against someone or be prejudice entirely depends on us.
On the whole, I broadly agree with this statement, and that religion can counter what our parents tell us, as we can believe in religion, over what our parents teach us, and so if a religion has the effect that it is supposed to have, then religion will always be able to fight prejudice learned from parents. However, I do acknowledging that there are many cases where the prejudices that one learns from ones parents can be ingrained and never be removed.
