MINDFULNESS & MORALITY 11: SIKH PERSPECTIVE

At Christchurch, Clarendon Park, this evening for the latest session in the Mindfulness and Morality course offered by Christians Aware as part of their Faith Awareness programme.

This the last of the sessions to be presented from the standpoint of a particular faith or belief. This time it's a Sikh perspective. Originally, Resham Singh Sandhu was to be our speaker, but Resham has recently been confirmed as Lord High Sherrif of Leicestershire and he's busier than we hoped he'd be. So he's asked another Sikh to take his place this evening: Ajmer Singh Matharu. Then, earlier this evening, our replacement took unwell, so he in turn has asked his son, Jatinder Singh Matharu (photo above) to step in. Jatinder hasn't brought a dilemma for us to discuss; he explains his own dilemma, that he was only asked to do this session a couple of hours ago and only had the content, format and purpose of the course!

After half an hour or so of introductory remarks by Jatinder, we break into small groups to devise some micro-dilemmas, that we can put to our speaker for his quick-fire response. The observations made and questions asked related to the following topics:

• Are human beings perfectible? Is continuous striving the genuine human condition?
• Health and safety at work vs religious identity (Jatinder spoke about his father's struggle to retain his turban as a police officer in the 1970s).
• Prevalence of arranged marriage in the Sikh community.
• Collective responsibility of Sikh community for children in their midst.
• Issues regarding wearing the kirpan in public.
• Equality of men and women.
• "Original goodness" and the problem of evil (Sikhs don't believe in original sin; they see human beings as being created in the purest condition).
• Contraception, abortion and family planning.