I’d like to separate this into inside the church vs outside the church.
What is a minority in the church? All are Adventists, so inside the church, being part of a minority should be a non-issue. There are cultural differences, and there will always be, however the onus should be on the minority members to adapt to the majority rather than the other way around. Minority members should always feel welcomed, however the majority shouldn’t be expected to change their culture and practices to make a small number feel more comfortable. An example: I find it interesting that the Filipinos I know don’t feel so comfortable in an all-Australian environment at church, however they seem to make no effort to participate sometimes. Together in their own group they will talk like there’s no tomorrow, but in a Sabbath School class they will say NOTHING, week after week. It’s not as if they don’t understand or have nothing to contribute. They are in a foreign environment, by choice, and can’t expect that environment to change to suit them, so they better adapt to the environment rather than stew about it and complain that Australians are not as friendly as Filipinos or whatever. Do your best to adapt to the situation you’re in.
Outside the church it’s a different story. However, once again, what is a minority? LGBT++ is a group who define themselves by behaviour. I would not call them a minority, rather a special interest group. There is nothing common among them apart from sexual interests and sexual behaviour. We do not have to adapt to all special interest groups.
In terms of racial minorities, all should be given equal opportunities and not discriminated against, however, once again, let’s be realistic about some of the problems that affect minorities. In Australia, Aborigines experience a much greater rate of incarceration than the white majority. Occasionally we hear about the tragedy of the high rate of incarceration. However, what is more tragic is the high rate of crime in that community leading to the incarceration. Rather than blame white society for imprisoning them and looking for ways to minimise that, we need to find out the reasons why such a high percentage of their population are committing crimes leading to imprisonment and address those issues. ALL people of ALL colours and ALL cultures can understand that stealing is wrong, killing is wrong, carjacking is wrong etc. ALL cultures hold these to be unacceptable. Why does one culture find such a high percentage of their youths involved in such activities? Government not providing enough for them to do is not a good enough reason. Where are the parents and parental upbringing instilling into them that this is wrong? Should one culture be punished in a different way to another? All should be punished equally for the same crimes.
In Australia, ALL people have equal opportunity when it comes to education and employment. Discrimination is prohibited by law and cases that are pursued are dealt with appropriately. (I’m not suggesting it doesn’t happen, but in reality it’s rare.) Why don’t we like to admit that sometimes the culture is the problem, and that not all cultures are equally valid? Remember back to the days of cannibals and headhunters. Was their culture equally valid, or were the white people justified in imposing THEIR morality upon them? Were the British justified in eliminating the burning of widows on their husband’s funeral pyres in India? Let’s rise above culture and set a common standard of morality and behaviour that ALL people should aspire to? The Adventist culture, whose foundation is the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, should be the model that everyone aspires to and we should model this behaviour to the world and let them marvel at the harmony that exists among us. In fact, I think this is already the case…
