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A Christ-centered discussion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
ARTICLE TWO
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
3 comments:
the question of freedom is an interesting one. coming from an Asian, Evangelical Christian background, I will quote an old cell group leader who essentially said that as Christians, the only freedom we are entitled to is the freedom to forgive. Indeed, a lot of other church leaders loved to emphasize that we were slaves to Christ.
These days, I don't like that sort of language. I believe that Christ's command to treat others as you would be treated mandates that we grant others maximum freedom to live their lives.
As applied to governments, that means governments should enact certain protections against discrimination, even if it protects behavior that Christians might disagree with. An example is homosexuality. Singaporean Christian leaders have encouraged the government to keep sodomy laws on the books. This is reprehensible (both the sodomy laws and the church's actions).
The Universal Declaration, as signed by governments, imposes requirements (moral, if not legal) on governments. However, it should apply to other bodies also. It would be interesting for, say, the Episcopal Church hold a ceremony at General Convention where we promise to be bound by the Universal Declaration.
Thank you, W, for your comments. The Universal Declaration actually does call on all organs of society, not just governments, to promote respect for the rights enumerated in the Declaration. Many churchpeople, however, seem to think it's something we should tell others to live by rather than figuring out the implications of our support for human rights for our common life within the church.
I believe the Jesus Christ's gospel imperative for humanity's freedom without distinction of any kind is grounded in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. Jews despised Samaritans, and vice versa.Priests and scribes were responsible for maintaining moral codes of their society. The parable sets aside all of these institutional and prejudicial constructs because ultimately, the well-being of the human being and the love of neighbor are core to living in God's domain.
We are entitled to freedom regardless of social location, class, gender, race, or sexual orientation because we are created to reverence God and love Neighbor with all of our being. This scriptural imperative does not enable us to pick and choose the manner in which we should carry out these commandments. God cares for the neighbor in the ditch, regardless of who she or he is on this planet. We, who profess to follow Jesus the Christ must go into the ditch as the Good Samaritan did in the parable demonstrating Christ's love for all neighbors.
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