Food For Thought is a public theology & Bible advocacy blog for Eternity from Sophia Think Tank’s David Wilson, who gathers top Christian thinkers to take a closer look at how the Christian faith addresses matters in society at large every week.

A few mornings ago I read from James’ letter in the Bible about how important it is to not play favourites or reward rich people over poor people. I reflected on that for a while and concluded that it is so easy to fall into the trap of favouritism in our everyday lives, sometimes even without noticing it. I decided I would seek to be more aware of that trap throughout the day.

I then turned to my trusty Android and was struck with two stories there that, as reported in the Age, were about blatant favouritism of rich over poor. The first one was about the push for refugees to have to work for the dole in Australia when they had been accepted into the country as refugees.

The second one was about a visa programme for the rich. In part this article reported “As Australia’s refugee debate rages on, the federal government is rolling out the welcome mat for a select class of migrant and it expects 700 new wealthy residents annually under its ‘Significant Investor Visa program’, which opens for expressions of interest on Saturday.

For permanent residency, migrants must have $5 million and live in Australia 40 days a year for four years.”

As reported, this sounds to me like favouritism. I’m all for skilled and wealthy investors to enter Australia as long as they are of benefit to our economy (the Bible in Jeremiah Chapter 29 has instructions on doing all we can for the peace and prosperity of the City– if the city prospers, all prosper) but when this stands in such stark contrast to policies involving poor people, there has to be something wrong. This is not an example of justice, to say nothing of the great Australian ideal of egalitarianism!

Reflecting further, it’s all too easy to point a finger at the Federal government and get angry at their policies, but the challenge needs to become much more personal than that. It’s highly likely we are all guilty of favouritism in some part of our lives. After all, favouritism is at the root of sexism, racism, ageism. And what about favouring more physically attractive people over those less well endowed?

This applies to children as well as adults. I remember a piece of research from some years ago that studied the attention children receive in Kindergarten, which found that children who were perceived to be ‘cuter’ got a lot more attention than others.

Last week’s Food for Thought carried the story of a train driver treating people with disabilities really well. Equality was obviously one of his core values. Later in the week I read a story about a NYC police officer buying a pair of warm socks and some boots for homeless man. Equality over favouritism. Everyone deserves the same level of respect, the same opportunities for wellbeing.

Let’s take a stand against favouritism, in the name of equality and justice for all. Let’s apply this to our children at home, to people we work with, to people experiencing homelessness, to those who have a disability, and those who are burdened by addictive disorders.  And let’s call on our leaders in all sectors of our society to live up to the great egalitarian ideals of what it is to be Australian.

Food for Thought.