Critical Reflection: Indian Christian Beliefs, Values, and Social Work

This essay offers a critical reflection on the beliefs and values of Indian Christians and their influence on social work practice. The author, an Indian Christian social worker, explores personal experiences of privilege, oppression, and intersectionality, drawing on functionalist and conflict theories. The essay examines how religious values shape professional identity and approaches to issues like racial and ethnic oppression, social and economic disadvantage, and disability. Through personal anecdotes and theoretical analysis, the author discusses the impact of privilege, the need for social change, and the importance of equality and ethical behavior in social work. The essay highlights the application of anti-oppression models and the role of social workers in addressing power imbalances and promoting the welfare of all individuals, emphasizing the intersection of social identity and experiences of discrimination. The author's beliefs in equality and fair treatment are central to their approach to social work, influencing their actions in combating oppression and promoting positive change within organizations and society.

RUNNING HEAD: BELIEFS AND VALUES OF INDIAN CHRISTIANITY 0
2019
Beliefs and Values of Indian Christians
Student’s Details-

BELIEFS AND VALUES OF INDIAN CHRISTIANITY 1
Beliefs and Values of Indian Christian and Social Work Practice
Christianity is regarded as the third largest religion in India which is recognized to be
take third position after Hinduism and Islam (Donovan, 2019). Christianity was introduced by
Thomas the Apostle. Indian Christians’ values and beliefs are derived from the teachings and
life of Jesus Christ. It has a great influence on the social life due to the influence on equality
in terms of human rights, love tolerance and brotherhood (Joseph, 2019). Moreover, the essay
will highlight my values and beliefs as Indian Christian and my living experiences as a social
worker. Further, the essay has discussed the oppression and privilege practice along with the
support of theories in order to make the critical analysis of my experience as a social worker
and my values and approaches towards the discriminations, ethnic oppression, social and
economic disadvantage and gender and disability. The key idea of the reflective essay to
make the analysis of social theories in order to explain privilege, oppression and
intersectionality along with my social work practice experience.
As per functionalist theory, there are various functional elements that contribute
positively towards the society. The functional elements are the race and ethnic inequalities
that serve importantly to the society when it is utilized by the dominant groups within the
society (Burrell & Morgan, 2019). Moreover, functionalism perspective can be applied
through the dysfunction when the under disadvantaged communities fail to take the
advantage and their norms, cultures and traditions are affected (Chen, 2018). Application of
this theory on the privilege practice can be crucial for the understanding and making the
critical analysis. Social privilege refers to the special power or an advantage used by the
individual for his own benefit that makes them advantaged or dominant from the other groups
and communities within the society (Palmer, 2018). Privilege can also be seen as race and
gender inequality wherein the dominant groups play an important role in the society as they
are justifying the unequal society in terms of privilege and also clarifying the certain values
and beliefs into the religion which affects the perceptions on the social privilege, race and
ethnicity.
However, me as an Indian Christian had experienced an event where I had seen the
privilege practice when I was working as a social worker in Australia. I had seen a group
which was privileged in terms of income and were powerful in the sense that gave them some
special disadvantage. I had observed that this group of people were powerful and had an
impact on the society and equality practice. Indian Christianity has the values and beliefs that

BELIEFS AND VALUES OF INDIAN CHRISTIANITY 2
determine the people can follow the particular religion and often have the right to act equally
before the law (Goh, 2018). As per my religion, I give due importance to equality and work
for the benefit of all the people that clearly states my professional identity. My experience
elaborates that the people who were privileged had a tendency to give rise to inequalities and
the people were highly dominating on the disadvantaged people that had created differences
and often made the various inequalities that had an impact on the entire organization in which
I was working.
Moreover, it can be seen that privilege can affect the society and often makes the
partition of the society that majorly affects the social work practice (Phillips & Lowery,
2018). As per my experience, I have noticed that privileged people into my organization have
made injustice with the other people. However, according to my religion and values, I had
used the lawful way to deal with the issue of racism and discrimination which was result of
the privilege groups who later created a bad impact on the organization with the social issues
such as gender inequality and making injustice with the social and economic disadvantaged
people.
As I am an Indian Christian, I believe in equality and brotherhood and because of
which I had opposed the privilege practice as it was against my religion and also had an
impact on the entire organization. Moreover, when I was working as a social worker, I often
had a perception that privilege practice can affect the society. I believe that social workers are
the gatekeepers of the society and should maintain the power imbalance which will ultimately
make the professional service. Further, professional social workers acknowledge the truth and
make attempts to reduce the inequalities in terms of whiteness and other powerful resources
that make the individuals wealthier (Ebbitt, 2015). The religion of Indian Christianity
intolerant towards the slave practice and inhuman practice or cruelty that can affect the
societal values. This can be understood from my experience in which I have made the steps
for removal of such practice from the system as it leads to the mistreatment of the people in
the organization which is against my religious values and I considered the ways for
equalising the power.
Further, the conflict theory determines that tensions and conflicts can take place due
to the unequal distribution of the power or the resources which divides the society into groups
and seeks a social change (Lundy & Darkwah, 2018). It identifies the change due to the
differences or the conflicts due to the unequal grouping of the people and the racism in terms

BELIEFS AND VALUES OF INDIAN CHRISTIANITY 3
of gender, education, ethnicity which has created dominance on the minority groups. These
underprivileged groups often seek for social change (Jia, Yang, Wang, Hong, & You, 2011).
This theory can better be understood from the oppression which is social issue that divides
the society and gives rise to the unfair treatment to the people and often give rise to societal
imbalance. Further, oppression is related with the use of unfair means or power to take the
supress the other person or bound another person to act in a certain way (Vargas, 2018). In
other words, this is the situation where the people govern the other people in an unfair and
cruel way. Thus, the conflict theory can better be applied to this situation of oppression as it
requires a social change as it creates the differences in the ethnicity and leads to the
discrimination bringing a negative impact on the society.
Oppression is concerned to be the practice that needs a change and is highly
influenced by the religions and tradition that affects the actions of the people (Lobato, Moya,
Moyano, & Trujillo, 2018). My experience while working as a social worker can be
explained from the fact that I had experienced an event in which I had suffered from the
oppressive practices on the basis of my income level which has led to several issues for me. I
had been suppressed by the money power used by people in brutal ways that made me act in a
certain way. This oppression falls into the category of socioeconomic oppression in which the
person leads to the power imbalance (Walker & Smith, 2018). As per my experience, I had
suffered from the suppressive practices from the powerful people who have made me feel bad
about myself and also exploited me and my behaviours that devalued me in the society.
However, while I was working as a social worker, I had come across several oppressive
practices that had required by ability to cope up with the issue through the social change.
Further, me as an Indian Christian has certain belief that I will not treat any person
less than what they deserve and also do not treat them with the any misleading practice as it is
precisely against may religion. However, my personal experience of oppression in which I
had suffered from the injustice from powerful people. Rather, religious values are
complementary to the act of being fair and maintain ethical behaviour towards others (Sharp,
Carr, & Macdonald, 2012). This can be noted from the fact that when I was working as a
social worker, I had adopted the anti-oppression model which was affected by my religious
values to do not discriminate and treat every people as per the prescribed ways and promote
the welfare of all the people.

BELIEFS AND VALUES OF INDIAN CHRISTIANITY 4
I as a social worker have undertaken steps for the prevention and removal of
oppression within the society which later has impact on the overall society. Hence, social
work practice for oppression sees the welfare of all the people and includes the eradication of
the oppression from the social system that can make the people empowered and also
privileged in context with the abilities that they already have (Tcholakova, Sotirova, &
Tzvetanova, 2018). As far as my experience is concerned, I have been oppressed in terms of
the money power when I have lesser opportunities to grow and suffered from the cruelty of
the powerful people. However, my beliefs clearly state that I will not accept or tolerate any
kind of slavery or cruelty and also do not accept the inhuman punishment that is given to the
people or to me. Following the Christian ideology, I have used the practices that can reduce
the oppression within the society and has also made the ideologies that can make the overall
organization developed.
Intersectionist theory of sociology states that the individuals have the same identities
and often have same ideology as is for others. This is also regarded as the symbolic
interactionism in which people are identified by the social identity created by the social
interactions (Pastrana, 2010). This can be attained by the self-concept through the interactions
made and often can be reason for the various intersections to be created in terms of several
societal issues. However, the intersectionalities within the society which divides the people in
terms of ethnicity, race, gender and ultimately leads to the oppression and other social issues
that can cause harm to the society. Moreover, the people within the society suffer from the
intersections which is created by the perceptions and opinions made by the people within the
society. Moreover, application of this theory can be helpful for the understanding of the
perceptions and values created by the people within the society for the individual through the
interactions made.
It can be noted that intersectionalities are made by the social perceptions that people
make for the people that creates the social identity which persuades people to view the other
person in a certain way (Harris & Patton, 2019). I have an experience when I was working
into the organization as a social worker, I had been discriminated due to my disability of
mental illness wherein I was bullied and even mistreated by many people at the workplace.
This disability was my social identity that made a unique mode of discrimination. Further, it
can be noted that intersectionality is how people treat the individual with special privilege
that makes their social identity and often demonstrates that how these people are oppressed
(Coaston, 2019). Similarly, during my experience I had come across several opinions and

BELIEFS AND VALUES OF INDIAN CHRISTIANITY 5
several and perceptions regarding my mental state and I had received various kinds of special
treatment into the organization that made me feel oppressed and that made me feel disabled
and discriminated. These opinions had my social identity and often made me discriminated.
As per my experience as a social worker where I had been suffered from
intersectionalities, I had been treated this issue against my religious values and beliefs. This
has even made me feel lower due to the discriminations and unequal behaviour of the people.
My religious background is against such issues as I believe in equality and fair treatment of
all the people. Additionally, intersectionalities created several kinds of issues for me as per
my experience (Chen, 2018). Moreover, intersectionality comes from the social interactions
which creates discrimination through overlapping experiences and social opinions. My
experience is complementary to the situation in which I was oppressed from the ground of
mental disability, I had suffered from the discrimination due to the lack of differences in the
social identity and the personal judgements of the people who discriminated me.
When I was working as a social worker, I had been seeking for dynamic
conversations about the differences along with the people who have overlapping
personalities. This was influenced with the religious values and beliefs of Christianity which
promotes the avoidance of the inequality and uplift the people with different identities
(Joseph, 2019). As a professional worker, I had given wide importance to intersectionalities
wherein I recognized the differences and aimed to address the injustice to the one group
towards the other group. As intersectionality separates the people from their values and the
respect that they deserve, I have made efforts for the recognition of the differences in the
racism experiences and made people realize their individual experiences are common.
However, for professional excellence I have understood the intersectional personalities and
their experiences in order to get deeper understanding of people’s social identity.
To conclude, it can be said that race and ethnicity are the major social issues that are
affected by the individual values and beliefs regarding the social issue that helps people to
make the accurate decisions. Indian Christianity is based on the teachings of Jesus and the
beliefs are primarily for the welfare of the people. This religious values and beliefs shape the
perception about the social issues such as oppression, privilege and intersectionalities. Here,
the essay has discussed the application of three theories on the social issues such as
functionalist, conflict and intersectionality theories which are helpful in the identification of
social issues privilege, oppression and intersectionalities respectively and has clearly stated

BELIEFS AND VALUES OF INDIAN CHRISTIANITY 6
my social work experience for the critical evaluation of my personal values and beliefs as an
Indian Christian and the social work experience.

BELIEFS AND VALUES OF INDIAN CHRISTIANITY 7
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