Role of Christian Education in fighting Caste, Patriarchy and Poverty.

Introduction

Christian education is not different from secular education in its pedagogy or methodology, but it
is deeper in function and more varied in origin. Education is multifunctional. First, education
develops professional skills and talents, provides book learning from manuals, transfers ideas
from teachers to students, and adapts the mind to be receptive to new experiences. Christian
education goes one step further and transforms the mind, or as Paul says, endows the students
with a new mind— the mind of Christ. Thus, the goal of Christian education is metanoia, or
transformation or transmutation.

Christian Education

Christian education caters more to the passive acquisition of content knowledge over the more
critical ability of teaching students to think theologically with an eye to applying the Christian
faith and mission to the changing conditions of the present world.

Consider, for example, Jesus’s educational intentions in the so-called Sermon on the Mount as a
template for guiding how a Christian should live as a faithful sojourner. Nevertheless, it is
perhaps more consequential to teach the faithful principles that can be applied to changing
societal conditions; that is, learn to think critically, to think theologically. The most desired
educational result might be a changed society, but the most effective means to achieve that is
fostered by a Christian educational philosophy that nurtures theological thinking and application.

Caste

In India’s case, where the caste system and class hierarchies are prominent, educational
initiatives are expected to be partly successful in mounting the social-economic standing of the
disadvantaged groups without a significant reallocation in material assets.1

The Dalit community, traditionally considered to be located outside the four-tier caste system,
has long been associated with occupations that are believed to be ‘polluting’ such as manual
scavenging or waste picking. Historically, Dalits were ostracized in both villages and urban
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centers with little to no access to formal education and interactions with other communities were
generally minimized.

Even in the modern era and the implementation of the Constitution which gives them legal
equality and reservations in public sector employment and institutions across States, many
members of the Dalit community are still occupationally restricted to menial wage labour and
continue to depend on richer upper castes for employment. Where one is born in the caste
hierarchy often determines access to public institutions. Being born in a certain family, caste, and
class often decides which religious sites one may visit, the schools one can attend, and the job
one is permitted to do.2

Even the church is not exceptional to the caste discrimination and Dalit oppression in India. In
the year 2011 Tensions ran high within the Christian community in Thachur village, and the
government has adopted a hands-off approach for now. This began in the 175-year-old Arockiya
Matha (Our Lady of Health) church has a chequered history, and the most recent additions to it
may have the potential to be a turning point for Dalit Christians in the village. The events were
the burials of two Dalit Christians in the cemetery attached to the church and the opposition to
them by upper-caste Reddiar Christians, who claim the cemetery is only for their dead.3

Caste hostilities in this village came to a boil this January when more than a hundred Dalit
Catholic families were forced to spend a night in the fields to hide from a rampaging mob of
upper-caste Catholics.

Why do Dalits convert to Christianity? To break out of the Hindu caste system, you might say.
Not completely true, as we found out in Harobele, just 60 km from Bengaluru. Christianity
entered the region centuries ago. The Catholic mission here, one of the oldest in Karnataka, was
established in 1675; 980 of the 1,000 families here are Catholics.

Catholicism, however, has offered no escape from untouchability for Dalits like Arogya Swamy
(37), whose family left Hinduism and settled in Harobele three centuries ago. For proof, we enter
an untidy little tea shop pretending as if we don't know each other. I am served in a steel tumbler
2
Manali S. Deshpande, REPORT ON HISTORY OF THE INDIAN CASTE SYSTEM AND ITS IMPACT ON INDIA
TODAY (Fall: California Polytechnic State University, 2010).
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like everybody else and offered a chair. Swamy is served his tea in a disposable plastic cup. He
hesitates to sit along with the other customers; he stands outside. As we sip our tea in silence, he
gestures toward the barber shop next door. The barber flings a tennis ball into the distance and
shoos away a group of boys with a stick. "Those boys were Dalit Catholics. The barber didn't
want them to pollute his shop with their ball," says Swamy later. 4 This is the situation of the
oppressed communities in India. No Christianity or Education is able to bring complete change
in the society.

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is the institutionalized dominance of male heads of households over subordinate

women and junior, or socially ‘inferior’, men. This dominance was patriarchal because it was
justified not simply on the basis of particular roles, competences, or achievements, but on the
basis of qualities considered inherent in the masculinity of the protector. 5 But today this
patriarchy is taken a turn and the women are been treated the secondary and the violence on them
have increased. The protector himself has turned to be a monster in many families.

Patriarchy, debated time and again, has been the source of discussion and often entertainment in
the upper- and middle-income groups as they can afford to sit down and talk about it like it’s an
easily solvable issue and not a cultural construct going on for what seems like millennia. The
lower-income strata on the other hand have given this practice many names, fate, destiny and
moreover karma. The treatment of women though has had more of a similarity that is often
glossed over by the differences in income and social status. Seen vividly in states all over India,
women are treated as nothing but pawns for money and pleasure. The after effects of these
beliefs such as female foeticide, domestic violence, rape and various others that have not only
led to the suppression of female opinion but has also scarred the existence of the female sex.6

The Catholic church continues to legitimize male dominance through internal sexist structures.
Church teachings that women cannot be priests and cannot represent God justify subservient

4
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/dalit-catholics-continue-to-battle-upper-caste-aggression/story-
6Cmvp1X3GT74iddi4qQLUJ.html

5
Francis Dodsworth, The Security Society History, Patriarchy, Protection (London: Palgrave Macmillian, 2019)
87ff.
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roles for women in the church and in society. 7 Religion is only one determinant of women’s
status and role in society. Political and socio-cultural conditions are equally, if not more,
important. Nevertheless, the influence of religion can be a powerful factor in mediating women’s
status. The role of women in religious systems is often an oblique reflection of women’s status in
society.8

Poverty

The purpose of Christian education is to incorporate Biblical values in the curriculum, and one
essential message in the Bible is to reach out and liberate the poor. To this day churches and
synagogues provide food, clothing, housing, health care, and job assistance to those in need.
They send volunteers to disaster areas, to rebuild communities. And they resurrect impoverished
communities in their own neighborhoods.9 In addition to providing direct service, faith
communities are advocates at the local, state, and national levels for the poor, working for
equitable and just policies that provide a safety net for society’s most vulnerable. people. Faith
groups organize national action campaigns around health care issues such as the State Children’s
Health Insurance Program.10

All the above kept on and keep going on from age to ages, but the change in the societal and
financial status is not changed. People from generations remain in the same place. The church of
this day should turn as it was in Acts ch.2. only then the change can be literally seen.

Poverty is a major threat to the existence of humanity in modern times especially in the
developing world. .11 Secular Education in every sense is one of the fundamental factors of
achieving sustainable economic development through investment in human capital. Education
fosters self-understanding, improves quality of lives and raises people’s productivity and
creativity thus promoting entrepreneurship and technological advances. In addition, it plays very

7
Deborah F.Sawyer, Women and Religion in the Christian Centuries (London: Routledge, 1996) 134 – 139.
8
Courtney W. Howland, Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women (Howland: St. Martin’s
Press, 1999) 114 – 224.
9
Olehile Andries Buffel, “PASTORAL CARE IN A CONTEXT OF POVERTY: A SEARCH FOR A PASTORAL
CARE MODEL THAT IS CONTEXUAL AND LIBERATING” (The Degree of Philosophiae Doctor, University of
Pretoria, 2007).
10
Mark D Mathew, Riches, Poverty, and the Faithful (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013) 5 – 8.
11
Jonathan Haughton and Shahidur R. Khandker, Jr., Handbook on Poverty and Inequality (Washington: The world
Bank, 2009) 26 – 113.
crucial roles in securing economic and social progress thus improving income distribution which
may consequently salvage the people from poverty.12

Christians Response towards these issues

Being educated has a fluid meaning and has through the Christian centuries eventuated in less
than ideal results. Religious literacy is not just the accumulation of facts or memorizing and
regurgitating dogma.

there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of “knowledge” in educating Christians. In

our view, one’s ability to think, to analyze, to critique, and then to adapt to contextual Christian
practice is critical and ultimately a great deal more important than merely knowing facts, stories,
and trivial minutiae even of the Bible Education is the key, but additional measures are needed to
achieve excellence.

Conclusion

Christian education should promote learning cultures wherein people confront intriguing
sociocultural issues. The routine quest for Christian education, we propose, is to explore
authentic tasks that challenge students to grapple with ideas, rethink their assumptions, and
examine their mental models of reality. Thoughtful exercises give Christians perspective on the
meaning of scripture and the world’s issues. With the ability to reflect theologically on the
questions of life, a believer’s faith in and relationship with God will be most meaningful.
“Engagement in these practices, with oppressed people, over time, can give rise to new
knowledge and new capacities for perception that are not accessible otherwise.”

Many would argue that education is the way forward. The reality for many members of
oppressed communities should, however, raise questions. In a country like India, which is said to
be developing and growing across international fora, the hierarchy acts as a barrier for domestic,
social, financial, educational and employment development. Only time can tell whether the
hierarchical system will take a back seat or continue to act as a barrier to the country’s
development.

12
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Bibliography

Buffel, Olehile Andries. “Pastoral Care in A Context Of Poverty: A Search for A Pastoral Care
Model That Is Contextual And Liberating”. The Degree of Philosophiae Doctor, University of
Pretoria, 2007.

Deshpande, Manali S. Report on History of the Caste System & its Impact on India Today. Fall:
California Polythechnic State University, 2010.

Dodsworth, Francis . The Security Society History, Patriarchy, Protection (London: Palgrave
Macmillian, 2019) 87ff.

Howland. Courtney W. Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women. Howland:
St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

Mathew, Mark D. Riches, Poverty, and the Faithful. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2013. Haughton Jonathan and Khandker Shahidur R., Jr. Handbook on Poverty and Inequality.
Washington: The world Bank, 2009.

Sawyer, Deborah F. Women and Religion in the Christian Centuries. London: Routledge, 1996.

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patriarchy/

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aggression/story-6Cmvp1X3GT74iddi4qQLUJ.html

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