Food for thought for those who doubt
-Where do the Gods hide as our world devours itself while they look aside?What have Gods done wrong that our world is falling apart? What have Gods done right? (Jerome Koenig)
-Exurge Domine et judica causam tuam (Raise, oh God, to defend your cause). (Roberto Ampuero)
1. Does God’s absence have ever more presence every day that passes?
Is God an old, old illusion of man or is man a permanent disillusion of God? If so, what does it imply to be agnostic, then? Simply believing that one cannot demonstrate the existence or inexistence of God? (But it is clear that it also implies that agnostics do not enjoy the sense of protection and security that believers in God enjoy). (Albino Gomez)
2. Faith-based action for those who believe
How many people try to place their hopes in the beyond where they seem to find what the here-and-now has denied them?
• Yes, the big religions have been the axes of cultural development. But, no, they have not brought about the hoped-for long-term harmony among humans and among them and nature, as well as not having brought about universal social justice and personal development. (Luis Weinstein)
• Yes, religions do flexibly share the belief in what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls “the inherent dignity of all members of the human family.” But, on the other hand, religions impose many un-appealable obligations on their devotees(simply too many desires and ideas are controlled inpeople’s lives).
• Yes, human rights (HR) and religions share the claim that dignity is present from birth for each and every one of us.
• Yes, in principle, religions preach for action when human dignity is violated. But has this always been true?
• Yes, faith-based action has more than occasionally been important in undermining repressive political systems many times in many places. But has this always been true?*
*: Talking about truth, Hegel’s rigorous and sorry truth was that Christianity had a shattering vitality on social issues until it consolidated its Church.
3. [It is interesting to note here that science-based action did emerge from the shadows of religion. But later on, no small part of the pain came from discarding faith and dogma from the emerging sciences. (Note that the subsequent compartmentalization of science became itself an impediment: it is futile to study the parts of the whole in isolation –much more so to decipher all sorts of whats and the hows, but not the whys).
4. So, do (HR) and religion need each other? The universality of human rights does require a secular presentation, but how much of its power comes from its past religious dimensions? (L. Cox, Kairos Center)
Human Rights: A rift or schism between faith and denial or disbelief?
Even given therelationships(or affinities) between religion and human rights, in all truth, these are often problematic.
5. Many believe that human rights are a form of ‘secular religion’, but are really uncomfortable with the word religion in such a statement.**
**: The late Louis Henkin (chairman of the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University) put it like this: “The human rights ideology is a fully secular and rational ideology whose very promise of success as a universal ideology depends on its secularity and rationality”.
6. The religious dimensions that may be found in HR thus do not depend on any particular religious beliefs or views on the nature and existence of a God.
7. Not surprisinglytrue
• True, secular human rights workers can work together in movements that draw on the best of human rights and of religions.
• True, by passing laws based on human rights, the state actually helps different religious communities–and members of the same community who have different interpretations– to live together in a fair and shared political space.
• True, the people who fight for human rights feel a sense of connection. This personal, individual, and powerful experience gives human rights their full meaning and social power. It is equally true that this experience is also felt by many religious activists.
• The fact notwithstanding that many of the people who fought for civil and political rights in the Americas came from religious movements, in the US, it is true that religious activism these days is often associated with, among other, attacks on the rights of women and of LGBT people (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) and with any criticisms of the excesses of unregulated capitalism. As a result, most HR activists (and the media) rightly often ignore religions’ claim to ‘progressive’ positions.
8. Sadly true
• Despite the true fact that believers have in the past been active in movements for HR and social justice, many HR activists view religion as a problem, rather than as an ally.
• Throughout history, religious figures have too often been boldface contributors to abuse and atrocious HR violations.
• More often than not, HR leaders distance themselves from the religious dimensions of their ideas.
• Defenders of unjust regimes with oppressive behaviors often use religion to suppress courageous voices for change, create divisions, justify oppression, and violate the rights of vulnerable people.
• Moral outrage alone is rarely linked to any attempt at social mobilization for HR, including among faith communities.
So?
9. To improve HR, massive involvement of the public is a must –primarily the involvement of those whose rights are (most) violated. And yet, even victims of the worst abuses have notbeen importantly engaged with the concept and with the organizations of HR that are unrelated to the religious organizations that have traditionally given them mostly comfort, strength, meaning, and some practical assistance. (The need for HR learning keepscoming up from many different angles in this Reader).***
***: The question is: Will the integration of learning human rights as a way of life eventually enrich every religion and culture? (Shula Koenig)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
schuftan@gmail.com