A QUESTION OF FAITH
With Rev Anthony Thacker Minster of Burbage Congregational Church
THE end of the year is a time to look back on this year, and reflect. Sometimes we witness a watershed moment.
Perhaps we will look back on 2017 as a turning-point on the issue thrown up by the allegations relating to Harvey Weinstein, and then convulsing first Hollywood, then Westminster, and now, perhaps the US Senate. It is the allegations of sexual harrassment, and inappropriate behaviour, and the #me too campaign to end sexual bullying and manipulation.
Many of these cases relate to allegations, some of which may be tested in UK or US courts, so we stick to the issues, rather than the personalities. The issue of women (and occasionally men) being subject to unwelcome advances is not new. Older women in the workplace in the 1940s and 1950s were certainly aware of it, and they knew the men they had to avoid receiving a lift from – and if that man was your boss, you would cycle to work to make certain you were out of their reach.
What is different now is that we seem to have crossed a threshhold where women are saying ‘Enough is enough!’ It is time for respect; time that sexist exploitation and abuse of power were finally over – that is at least one clear interpretation of the #me too campaign and the other reactions.
Some may be asking whether the ‘sexual revolution’ started in the 1960s is going into reverse. But that is perhaps to mis-read the situation. For in a way there was not one sexual revolution in the 60s, but two – related, though not the same. One liberalised, promoting change in sexual behaviour, and removing a lot of censorship; the other saw the rise of feminism, and the campaign for sexual equality. Perhaps the best way to see this is in terms of that French Revolutionary slogan, ‘liberty, equality and fraternity!’ Today, with genderinclusive language, ‘fraternity’ becomes ‘unity’ or ‘solidarity’. But it’s ‘liberty v. equality’ that has shaped Western politics ever since, for example in the battle between free markets and social equality. The two overlapping sexual revolutions made demands, the one for ‘liberation’ (free expression, etc.), the other for equality.
But what is a Christian response? The Bible has three different words, not exactly the same as liberty, equality and fraternity, but deeper. The three biblical words are salvation, justice and fellowship. Salvation is liberty and liberation that goes deeper, because we also need freeing from what enslaves us inwardly. Justice – the same biblical word also means righteousness – is right and equitable living. And fellowship – this word also means communion – is a much deeper togetherness. Liberty and equality without this deeper love degenerates into abuse. What makes salvation, righteousness and fellowship deeper is that they are rooted in God, who is our liberty, justice and togetherness.