February this year, the Home Affairs Minister issued a Consultation Document on a proposed new Law in Jersey to be known as the Discrimination (Jersey) Law 200-.
The draft Law that has not yet been lodged for debate in the States but it will aim to prohibit discriminatory conduct. It “will set out areas where discrimination will not be tolerated, for example in employment, education, provision of goods, facilities and services, and in the management of clubs and premises, subject to certain exceptions”.
However, the Law will have no effect without later Regulations, which, once passed by the States, “will define the ‘attributes’ to which the Law applies – for example, race, sex, disability etc”.
Discrimination.........? On grounds of race ...... or sex ...... or disability.....or (later in the Document) age........ or gender ...... or religion?
Jersey folk are going to have to look deep inside themselves to see whether their decision on who they employ to serve in their shop is influenced by the applicants’’ race (dark skin or fair), sex (homosexual or a heterosexual), disability (athletic youth or plump with one eye), age (mature lady or school-leaver), gender (attractive girl or unattractive man), or religion (Muslim or atheist). If only one employee is needed and there are many applicants, discrimination (selection) is unavoidable – and selection of one will disadvantage all the rest.
But will the Law have anything to say about the parallel issue of admission to (that is, immigration into) Jersey? Jersey only wishes to admit a manageable number of immigrants each year – enough to keep us all wealthy into 2035.
If we allow our choices to be made solely by reference to how much extra money each immigrant can bring into our pockets, will that mean that we avoid discrimination on grounds of race, sex, disability, age, gender or religion?
It seems that selection (discrimination) on the grounds of “maximum benefit to me” is not only permissible but laudable - under Jersey Law, that is..
And, actually, that’s what employers will be able to do when selecting staff: allow self-interest to hold sway.
Well, there is much better news for the imperfect, the de-selected, the discriminated against, with regard to the most important discrimination that could ever be used against anybody - see above in bold type.
Yes, “God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him....”
Isn’t it terribly encouraging that Peter, perhaps the most well-know disciple of Jesus Christ, Son of God, preached this time and again in the years immediately following AD 33, the year that this man Jesus died and rose from the dead.
One can hear Christians say, with Peter, “Bring me your Africans and Indonesians and Indian Dalits, your homosexuals and divorced and unmarried parents, your low-IQs and lame, your elderly and illegitimate, your male and female, your Muslims and Jews, your educated and uneducated.”
All are welcome who fear the God of Our Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him and His words by “doing what is right”.....
And they will always be acceptable to him..... |