No 145 - Violence

Violence 4-Ever? Looking for God in the Global Sex Market

Lesley Orr

Abstract: This article is based on a presentation at the BIAPT Annual Conference, held in Dublin, July 2004. It reflects on the conference theme of violence by looking at the global phenomenon of trafficking in humans for the international sex industry. A recent film, Lilya 4-Ever, engages powerfully with some personal, political and spiritual dimensions of sex trafficking, and the presentation invited participants to explore its parabolic qualities as a resource for insight and challenge. Interrogating the spirituality of the sex market, I ask particularly what kind of gods are lurking there, and whether they legitimise or have the capacity to overcome the increasingly boundless, globalized violence of that market.
(The session at the BIAPT conference began with the opening sequence of Lilya 4-Ever. Later that evening, the whole film was shown.)

Violence: Is there a civilizing process? Does the gospel play any part in it?

Tim Gorringe

Abstract: The paper argues that violence has complex roots, and therefore demands complex responses. Amongst the causes of violence may be factors as various as structural injustice, mimesis, bad parenting or hormonal imbalance. Structural changes are needed to reduce violence, though it will never be completely eliminated. Jesus identified violence as a key aspect of the human problem and wanted his new society to address it. The church may thus be understood as the seed bed of a new order which looks for creative ways of dealing with conflict. That realisation demands both a new theology and a new church.

Professional Identity, Regulation and Formation - A Review of Values in Professional Practice: Lessons for Health, Social Care and Other Professionals.

Helen Cameron with Eirwen Pallant and Hilarie Watchorn

Abstract: This review article engages with the themes of identity, regulation and formation found in Pattison and Pill’s Values in Professional Practice (2004). The three authors are professionals who engage with the themes and uncover questions relevant to their own practice. These themes are also found in Contact 144 with its focus on professionalism and so contrasting views are illustrated from that source. The review concludes that identity, regulation and formation are linked by trust and knowledge/power. The institution of professionalism rests upon the possibility of social trust and also upon acceptance by lay people of the power conferred by specialist knowledge.