No surrender to stereotyping – No matter where there is conflict, and regardless of whether it is manifested through racial, religious, sexual or political differences, there will be found an attendant legacy of stereotyping and prejudice in which it has been nurtured.
There is something fundamentally basic about the practice of stereotyping. To really hate someone, you have to dehumanise them. The last thing you want to retain is any concept that they are in fact another human being. Anyone who has had anything to do with military practice knows that the language of war contains no reference to one’s opponents as ‘their soldiers or sailors’. No, they are “the enemy”. Whatever “they” are they are not human. In Ireland we still make do with prods, micks and paddies. The Shankill butchers and the Provisionals dehumanised their victims efore they injured or killed them. For one it was “Fenians”, and for the other it was “the legitimate targets provided by an army of occupation”.
Those who served the Church and the causes of Christ, humanity and peace in Northern Ireland during those long days and dirty nights of tension, mayhem and murder, know the outcome and the cost in human life and limb of stereotyping.
Stereotyping is dehumanising and it is the first step towards violence. Christ himself was called names before he was stoned.
Having had the good fortune to have read “Naught for Your Comfort” when it was just published in1956, and shortly afterwards to have met its author, Fr Trevor Huddleson CR, when he was on leave from confronting apartheid in South Africa, I offer for the reader’s consideration this short quotation which has been a life-traveller with me. Fr Trevor wrote – “Sometimes I am asked: “Do you like (–or know—or trust–) the African?” My answer is always, “No.” I do not like the African: but I love many Africans very dearly. I do not know or trust the African: but I know and trust hundreds of Africans as my closest friends.” (Page 247).
Words from an English-born Anglican priest who was himself loved and known and trusted by many Africans, including Desmond Tutu. Words that are relevant even today as we think about relations between groups of human beings. Ultimately, it is only in the face-to-face interaction of people who speak for themselves that the work of justice, forgiveness, and reconciliation is possible. This is a most direct corollary of the doctrine of the Incarnation and the doctrine of the human being in the image and likeness of God. Our faith calls us to put love into practice face to face, no matter what the cost. And, it is why the work of building human community, however messy and inefficient it may seem at times, is always worth the time and effort it takes.
Already in the discussion following the General Synod debate sadly there have been moves to stereotype. The press has resorted to phrases such as ‘conservatives’ and ‘liberals’ – without any attempt to define their terms. Some have sought self description – evangelicals or Changing Attitudes. But the attempt to posit that supporter of the motion are “bigots” and predominantly from Northern Ireland, is two steps too far, and should not be utilised by those who otherwise claim they are desirous of dialogue.
Rather, there needs to be serious attempts by all involved to more fully understand those fellow church members with different mindsets to our own. To discover why they think as they do, and what cultural or spiritual influences shape their mindset is non-negotiable.
In understanding the approach of many in the north to scripture, there is benefit in coming to terms with the views of the Most Rev Dr John Dunlop, a past Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, and a person who defies stereotyping. In a small but most useful publication he presents two major events as fundamental shapers of the Presbyterian value system in Norther Ireland, and they are values which influence more than Presbyterians. The two events are the French Revolution and the Geneva Reformation, and their influences were transmitted via Scotland to the Scots settlers in Northern Ireland.
From France Ulster gets its strong sense of egalitarianism; its self-levelling of those who wish to lord it over their neighbours. “Who does he think he is?” and “Don’t forget the bowl you were baked in” are a couple of shorthand phrases which have served a small community well in terms of social interaction. From the Geneva Reformation comes an approach, almost of literalism, which affects the understanding of scripture. Questions as basic as “Why did St Paul use that particular phrase?” is fundamental to the study of the scripture which was and remains active in the lives of many Biblical readers in the north. This attention to literary detail also affects political responses. Politically, this attention to the detail of language has shaped the course of the peace process in the north. As one commentator said about one of the many Anglo-Irish agreements – The Prods read what was on the line, the Micks read what was between the lines.
Those Anglicans in the Republic where the dominant mindset in society was shaped by Roman Catholicism, need to examine where they are coming from, as they seek to engage with their fellow co-religionists in the north who also have been influenced to some degree by their majority neighbour. However, if as an All Ireland Church we engage in a stereotyping based upon regional influences, we will not be able to journey together, let alone benefit from the struggle to understand those mindsets different to our own, and to critique our own mindset as well.
Houston McKelvey