‘4 we all…fall short of the glory of God’

I’m writing this piece following talking on ‘faith’ + then really to respond to our task when we were asked to make judgements on the photographs presented to us aligned to a range of stats to populate from Aisha + Terry to Akala + the Prime Minister.

I’m responding through my lense of faith because it is central to my belief system + processing driver. My title, having been inspired from the Book of Romans, Chapter 3, verse 23, in the Bible, (NIV). Understanding this verse means that we all make mistakes as human beings + it’s alright. It’s what makes us human. It gives us the permission to say ‘I’m not perfect’ + ‘I haven’t got all the answers’ but I’m here to work + learn. For we all have biases, from the families + communities we have grown up in, to the environments we inhabit, whether professionally or socially, we are continually making choices because of our own positionality + intersectionalities, which shape us. 

Being, British-Asian, Indian, Punjabi, a Christian, I’m a minority of a minority. My world view is not necessarily to fit in, but to be at peace to love others. It ofcourse, can be challenging. Personally + professionally, there are times that I am the only brown person in a room + if people ignore me + don’t even have the decency to nod or say ‘hi’, I already am made to feel ‘not welcome’ or have ‘lost a sense of belonging’ whether they see that or not because they have white privilege. 

In my faith community, we say to ‘know + be known’, which is that I know who I am in Christ + I’m known to others, so that I am singularly not alone. Like a jigsaw puzzle, to have healthy relationships, I am close to a handful of people, that I can ‘do life with’, where I get to pray for them + they me. Then in turn these friends are connected closely to others, so on + so forth. Furthermore, I am engaged in ‘generational learning’ in a small church group which meets every two weeks. This again is based on the principle that we share the word of God, break bread together, listen + learn, question + help develop, change perspectives for the better, pray for one another + ‘do life together’. It was a revelation a long time ago for me to understand that the Government construct of the ‘schooling’ system is the only time we are gathered for the purpose of ‘learning + teaching’ for two overarching factors, being geography + age. Otherwise, whether in Church or in my church small group, family + community settings, I have learnt about life, culture and speaking the Punjabi language with fluency from people of different ages. Firstly, from my grandparents + parents, then relatives + community. Ofcourse, these intersectionalities in themselves embody biases of their own, which one must question, navigate + then self-regulate to develop in character. In conclusion, being honest enough to love + respect one another as human beings despite our differences is being fully human. The change comes, when we can be brave enough to engage with others, in any environment, with people that do not look or think like us. Be inclusive.