There was once a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho and he was beaten up and left for dead on the road. On separate occasions a Levite and a priest were walking by but when they found the man they looked at him and crossed the road and walked on by. Later a Samaritan was walking down the road and found the man. He bandaged the man and carried him to the nearest inn where he handed over 2 silver coins and asked the inn keeper to look after him and said that he would pay for any excess when he returned.
In this story the Levite and the Priest let their prejudices come out and therefore they discriminated against the man on the road. They probably assumed that because he was mugged he deserved it and that he was filth, but yet the Samaritan had it in his heart to help the man and put his prejudices aside.
Warning against prejudice
If you are holding a meeting and a rich man with gold rings walks in along with a homeless man and you offer the rich man I good seat but yet tell the tramp to sit on the floor at your feet you are then you are guilty of creating distinctions between others and yourself.
This is putting your prejudices to practice and discriminating against the tramp even though he might be a much better man than the rich man. If these prejudices were put aside we would all be equals and have a fair world, which is how it should be.
There are many types of discrimination within the world. They are all equally shown within us.
Colour: People discriminate against people of a different skin colour because their prejudices come into action and tell them that they are foreign and do not belong there. There are many racist attacks in the UK every year against people of a different skin colour for no apparent reason.
Racism: Racism is another very common act of discrimination. This is where someone is disliked because of his or her race and they may even be of the same colour. E.g. An English person may discriminate against and Irish person even though they are of the same colour.
Gender Issues: Employers may decide not to hire a man/women because they believe that they will not be suitable for the job just because they may be week, which is just a stereotype. E.g. a women may not be hired in a factory to work on machinery because the employer might feel that she will not be able enough to work to the standard of a man.
Disability: Discrimination against a person with a disability is when people decide that they are not normal and maybe will have no personality and that they wont want to speak with them. Also an employer might discriminate against a disabled person because they believe that their brain is not up to the job of hard work but obviously a disabled person will not be hired for a heavy lifting job and this would not be discrimination as the person is not physically able to lift heavy items.
Religion: Some people are ignorant of other religions and will see them as inferior to them and therefore discriminate against them. At the moment with the war with Iraq looming over us people are beginning to show increasing hatred towards religions from the Iraq area.
I have chosen to talk about Nelson Mandela as my famous Christian who worked hard to stop discrimination.
Nelson Mandela fought for the end of the apartheid in South Africa. During the apartheid black and white people were not allowed to mix together for example they were not allowed to use the same bus, toilets, schools or even pavements. Mandela knew that the bible taught that everyone should love one another but Mandela knew that the white people did not love the black people and he would not stand for it.
Mandela was involved in Umkhonto we Sizwe that fought for the end of the apartheid but in 1962 he was arrested and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. Due to Mandela’s dedication to the campaign to end the apartheid he inspired people all over the world to support the cause. The South African economy suffered as counties boycotted South African goods. South Africa was even expelled from the 1964 Olympic Games.
From 1980, international pressure to end racial discrimination increased. Finally, in 1990, the government lifted its ban on the ANC (African National Congress). On 11 February that year, the government leader, president F W de Klerk, released Nelson Mandela from prison.
All over the world people switched on their television sets ands saw 71-year-old Nelson Mandela walk out of prison.
In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk won the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end the apartheid peacefully. Mandela went on to lead the ANC in talks with the white government, which resulted in the first democratic elections ever held in South Africa. The ANC won easily and, in 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first president of the new, multi-racial South Africa.
