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From Rev Ruth Scott, Anglican Vicar in Richmond:

A trainer helping to empower women in rural Afghanistan went to see a group she鈥檇 been working with a few months earlier. She was disappointed to see them walking in the street several paces behind their husbands. 鈥淲hy are you still doing that?鈥� she asked, assuming they鈥檇 learnt nothing from their time with her. The women smiled at each another and one, with a twinkle in her eye, simply said, 鈥淟andmines!鈥� The trainer had leapt to the wrong conclusions based on unchecked assumptions and a superficial assessment of what she saw. She鈥檚 not unusual in that. In the gospels, for example, men who thought rather too highly of themselves, looked at the people who gathered around Jesus and saw tax-collectors, prostitutes, beggars and all kinds of other characters they thought contemptible. If I鈥檓 honest, when I was younger I was just like those self-righteous and judgemental characters who, lacking any emotional intelligence, condemned Jesus鈥� choice of friends. Before coming to London as a student nurse in 1978 I had very black and white views about a whole range of folk I鈥檇 never met. Training at St Thomas鈥� Hospital brought me into contact with them for the first time. These encounters challenged and changed my perceptions completely. People I鈥檇 labelled negatively suddenly became fleshed out human beings with whom I often found I had much in common. I learnt that no one stands where they stand without reason: Positive or negative life experiences shape how a person develops, for good or ill. On many occasions, having heard the life story of someone I鈥檇 previously condemned, I was left feeling how much worse I might have turned out in the same situation. They taught me that, like the women in Afghanistan, only when I take time to see the person behind the position they take, will I have any chance of discovering what amazing people they actually are.