Essay 7 on Christianity and Universal Human Rights
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REL110OL1HumanrightsandresponsibilitiesinChristianitytoday.docxHuman rights and human responsibilities in Christianity Today
Edgecombe Community College REL 110 World Religions 11/13/15
Rev. Stephen A. Herring
Your Assignment is as follows:
Please compose a well- developed essay exploring the ideas of human rights and human responsibilities in Christianity today.
In many parts of the world we can find Christian communities which are shaped by the following characteristics.
· They have a well-defined and distinct cultural identity.
· They do not have a lot of interaction with people from cultures outside their own.
· They feel their culture is somehow under attack, or threatened by demographic changes as people enter the area from different cultures with different values.
· They have a more pre-modern world view, especially when it comes to salvation and damnation.
Communities who hold on to these points of view are more likely to violate the human rights or support those who violate the human rights of people who belong to other cultural groups. Unfortunate examples of this type of thought and action can be found in places like Nigeria, Kenya, and the Central African Republic today.
If we are to draw a lesson from the past, we can see that traditional Christian views toward human rights and human responsibilities have been shaped by a pre-modern world view and by belief in a hierarchical model of society.
A hierarchical model of society presupposes that there are different “classes” of people and that each class holds different rights and responsibilities. The specifics of a hierarchical model of society will vary from time to time and from place to place, but the following provides a general summary. At the top of this old model of society we would find the ruling elite, royalty, kings, queens, princes, and other members of the Royal Court. Below this class would be some sort of a Senatorial Class made up of wealthy land owners and business people. These would be the ”Lords and Ladies,” great old houses of the land, and the traditional power brokers of society. Below this class would be a broader “equestrian” class who would have some measure of wealth and privilege, owning their own land. Below this class would be the skilled tradesmen and the military class. Below these would be farmers and below these would be unskilled laborers. Below these, at the very bottom, would be the slaves. It is important for us modern folks to realize that these pre-modern designations are solidly supported by scripture. (See, for example, Exodus 21:20) Each class, or segment of society possessed a different set of rights and responsibilities. The higher –up members of society had more rights and the lower down members had basically no rights at all. Slaves and servants were responsible for being good slaves and good servants. (See Colossians 3:22, Ephesians 6:5, and I Peter 2:18)
This way of seeing the world shaped Christian thought for centuries before it was gradually displaced by a more secular and humanistic approach. This more secular and humanistic approach is represented by the American Declaration of Independence which states: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” (Declaration of Independence located at: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html )
A pre-modern world view also determines that people who belong to the “right” religion will be saved, while those who belong to the “wrong” religion will go to hell. This has been, and in many circles still is a mainstay of Christian faith. From a postmodern perspective though, certain difficulties emerge if we take a critical view of this idea of human destiny. If viewed from the perspective of the whole human population, this makes hell a very large place and heaven a very small place. Also, Christians have a bad record of treating people badly if they think these people are going to go to hell when they die.
These two points of view, a hierarchical view of society and a pre-modern view of salvation have had a great influence on the approach Christian people have taken toward human rights over the years.
In post-modern times though, things have changed. Today, many churches are much more interested in promoting universal concepts of human rights, especially the rights of children. Many formally traditional Christian missionary organizations have taken a global lead in providing for basic human rights in places that have been traditionally neglected. For example, look at the track record of Samaritan’s Purse with respect to ministry in areas of Africa stricken by Ebola. Their missionaries are routinely putting their lives at risk to serve people just because they are people, regardless of their religious or cultural background.
Today, Christianity in all its branches; (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and others) has a new focus on bringing universal human rights to the forefront across all social discussions. We can see this in Christian communities which are active in pursuit of peace and justice movements, anti-death penalty groups, pro-life, children’s service, overseas missionary groups, Samaritan’s Purse, and many others. As this work continues, we need to realize that wherever we are, we belong to a global community and our approaches to both human rights and human responsibilities need to be global in perspective.
