Disclaiming discrimination

The day has dawned brightly for me, with a gift. I reached for the Net and the default home page of the browser, The Hindu home page opened. And, when I went down the headlines I found this: “We must challenge the way so many faiths treat women”, authored by the former US President Jimmy Carter. That was the gift.

This man, when he was in the White House, wore his faith on his sleeves but, to his everlasting credit, never preached to the nation (just the opposite of his successor). And, for him to “sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades” must have been wrenching. Yet, he took that step. Why? His most innate feelings of being part of an undifferentiated humanity seem to have come to the fore. It took its time, but it did come out. There is nothing political about this.

After noting that the article has a Guardian Newspapers Limited copyright, I went to the original. This is not because I have a bias towards The Guardian vis-à-vis The Hindu, but more because if the column came under the Comment is Free (CiF) space of that paper, I would get to read comments from the readers and even respond. This was the second good news, the article is under CiF and is available here, and you would find my calling card on one of those comments.

Mr. Carter is leaving his religious denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, a Protestant sect (my understanding is he is not leaving religion as such, but that can only be a matter of time – he is at the top of the slippery slope) as per the consensus reached in a group called “The Elders”, brought together by Nelson Mandela. That is, the lineage of The Elders cannot be faulted. The group published a statement recently that reads:

“The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable.”

So let it be said; so let it be written

Amen, Tatastu, Insha’Allah, Sangham Saranam Gacchami, …

Raghuram Ekambaram