Christianity and Human Rights - Essay Example

Introduction The Christian faith has been very instrumental in ensuring that the universal human rights are respected and that everybody is born with a certain inalienable rights that cannot be taken away from them. This means that everybody is equal irregardless of their races, color, sex and religion. Although Christianity has been cited by some people as being oppressive in various instances in the history, the role it has played in promoting human rights can be overly underestimated and this is because the religion from its inception have considered everybody as being created by one Supreme Being, God and that everybody is equal before the eyes of the lord (Tierney, 1997). However, the religion has also been culprit of gross human rights violation in various instances in history and especially the Pre-Christian period whereby some people were considered to have more rights than others. However, even at this time the religion still advocated for human rights in various aspects. The most import part to note is that the foundation that was laid by the religion have been very instrumental in today's humanism and this can be evidenced by the fact that today's secular humanism have adopted some of its aspects from Christianity (Jack, 2008). History Christianity has been very instrumental in furthering the ideology of universality and this means that since the Pre-Christian era to the modern time Christianity, the Christians have been very vocal in issues surrounding the human rights. In this respect, the Christians have also been involved in various issues that are concerned with human rights and this can be evidenced by various sentiments that have been aired by the Christians in various periods in the history. During the Pre-Christianity period the Jew advocated for the equality of all men (Richard Tuck, 1973). However, their views towards women were deeply discriminating and this can be attributed to the fact that their laws grossly violated the rights of the women. This can be evidenced by the various laws that were put in place whereby the women were not recognized as independent entities and they could not be allowed to attend some ceremonies and also perform some religious activities. All the leaders at that time were men and only few women assumed leadership roles. However, during that period, all people were considered to be created by God and with that came various inalienable rights which could not be violated by other people. In this period all people were considered equal before the eyes of God (Thomas, 2005). In the Christian period, all men were considered equal before the eyes of God and they were all considered to be the children of the almighty. During this period the rights of the women were also highly lobbied for and this was mainly through the teachings of Jesus Christ who asserted that all people were equal before the eyes of God irregardless of their sex, color or race. At this time, through the teachings of Jesus Christ even the slaves were deemed to have some rights and this meant that there was the promotion of the universality ideology. These sentiments however, were not felt by various races especially the Romans who deemed other races as inferior. This can be evidenced by the fact that the Romans being the ruling class enacted laws that were discriminative of other races especially the taxes. Still in this period there was gross abuse of human rights because there were people who were deemed as slaves and they were treated as inferiors (Elizabeth, 2005). In the Secular period, the human rights of all individuals have greatly been lobbied for by various organizations and this has played a very important role in ensuring that there is a gross protection of human rights. The secular world have deemed that every human being was born with a certain inalienable rights and these can be observed by the fact that such things as slavery were abolished and women have been afforded equality in various fronts as politics and commerce and have been deemed to be equally capable as men (Roger, 2004). Pre-Christian The Pre-Christian era advocated for universal rights but not in such intensity as other civilizations advocated for the human rights. The human rights outlook of the Pre-Christian emphasized on the position of the males and it was deemed to be very discriminative in various aspects as race, sex, color, religion, political and other status of people. In this period, not everybody was considered to be equal and this was highly reflective of the people did not consider that all people were born free and that they had equal rights. The society did not deem it important to note that all people had their dignity and that they were endowed with conscience and reason (Beckford, 1986). To this effect, the society did not treat one another in the brotherhood spirit that is very instrumental in the human rights concerns. In this time, the society saw that not everybody was born right and there were people who had more rights than others and this was very discriminative of people in various aspects of life. A good example is the females who were considered as property and were highly inhibited in such aspects as religion whereby they were restricted to the level of involvement in religion activities. Apart from the women, the children too were highly discriminated against especially under the feudal system which was highly sanctioned by the society. The Christians could not afford the rights to various segments of the society like the Greeks and Romans had given these rights to these segments. Others whose rights were grossly violated included the slaves who were considered to be owned by the slave owners and that they had no right to have children. To this effect the children who were borne of slaves were considered to be the property of the slave owners. This can show how the human rights protection at the Pre-Christian period was degraded (Roger, 2004). However, the society at that period also played a very important role in laying the foundation of the modern day human rights. This is because the saw everybody as being created by the same God and this meant that the God who created the people had created them equal and that he had given them some alienable rights. The only flaw to this was that religion played a very great part in various fronts and this ensured that various societies differed on the extent of rights that were inalienable to some people who did not belong to a particular religion or class in the society. However, by the mere fact that the society agreed that everybody had a right that had to be protected by the authorities laid a very strong foundation to the modern day human rights (Concilium, 1979). Christianity and human rights Since the inception of the Christian Faith, it has been very instrumental in advocating for the human rights around the world. At first thought, the Christians were viewed as very discriminating especially by other religions and this can be attributed to various historical events most notable being the Crusades which sought to force other faiths to adopt Christianity as the ideal faith through violent attacks. These attacks have been seen by many ways of enriching the Christian nations in Europe during the medieval times (Tibi, 1994). However, with time, the Christians have come to acknowledge the fact that it is important for people to have human rights which are protected by various entities chief among them being the government. With the inception of Christianity after the death of Jesus Christ, the religion undertook it to make various people who had been discriminated against by the society and this can be rooted to the teachings of Jesus Christ which sought to make the rights of various entities in the society to be recognized by the society as well as the ruling authority (Murray, 1990). In the 19th century, Christianity played a very important role in enlightening the world of the importance of protecting the rights of the marginalized and minority people around the world. It was very instrumental in teaching the rights to these people although many people have seen this as a move by the Christians to further their faith all over the world and this was meted by a lot of criticism. One area that benefited a lot was Africa and the South America continent although by doing this they also subjected some of these territories to colonialism. It is important to note that Christians played a very important role in ensuring that the people had the knowledge of their rights and why it was important to protect the rights (Sieghart,, 1989). In modern times, Christianity has even played a major role and this is by lobbying for various freedoms of people around the world who have been oppressed. This has also contributed to the fact that the people who have been oppressed and had their rights denied have been able to gather help from Christian organizations which are very instrumental in highlighting their problems. The authorities have also come to realize the importance of protecting the rights of their subjects through intensive lobbying by Christian organizations which have assumed the role of guidance to the people and their protection of human rights. Millions of people have benefited from the Christian human rights organizations (Jurgen, 2006). Secular approach to human rights Secular humanism is a modern approach which has tried to disassociate religion from various human rights efforts. It has played a very important role in ensuring that various people around the world have their human rights protected apart from the fact that it discourages the intervention of the religious bodies in these efforts. This is seen as an effort of the secular field to prevent different religions from infringing the rights of other religions faithful. An example is where the human rights of the Muslims would be compromised if Christianity played an overall role in fighting for the human rights (Elizabeth, 2005). It has been very instrumental in correcting the flaws that have been left by Pre-Christian and the Christian efforts of instilling the concept of human rights in the world. This can be seen by many aspects like the women being given equal rights and opportunities as men in various fronts like politics and leadership roles. It is important to note that the Pre-Christian humanism was greatly flawed by the virtue that women were completely discriminated against and also the children who were considered to be the property of the males. In the same period, the human rights of the slaves were grossly abused by the fact that they were considered to be the property of the slave owners and at the same they were considered to be inferior in the society (John Paul II, 1999). The slaves were also denied the right of having children of their own and the children borne of slaves were considered to be the property of the slave owners. With the inception of Christianity, there was great improvement on the human rights ideologies of the Christians and this meant the human rights were greatly improved. However, there were limitations to the level of advocacy the Christians could reach in their human rights endeavors. There were also a number of inhibitions concerned with their approach to the human rights issue (Second Vatican council, 1965). For once the Christians were viewed as subjects of the ruling authority and so were all other religions. This meant that they could not educate the people on the importance of political rights without antagonizing the ruling authority of the countries they were living in. Apart from that the Christians would naturally discriminate against other religions as well as one denomination discriminating against another denomination and this has been witnessed in history. This is where the secular approach to humanism played an important role by ensuring that various people in the society enjoyed equal rights. These rights included such rights as freedom of speech and other equalities as the universal suffrage (Benito, 1989). It is important to note that the secular approach to humanism have taken a lot of its ideologies from the Pre-Christian humanism to Christian humanism and has also integrated other political, economical and social aspects of the developing world. It ha successfully helped in the elevation of human rights in the modern concept and this have enabled a lot of people who had been discriminated against especially the women, the children and the minority races in the world (Hannum, 1993). Conclusion The modern human rights concepts in the world have been a combination of different humanism approaches in the world and Christianity have played a major role in the modern human rights. The contributions that can be rooted to Christianity can be evidenced from the Pre-Christian era and this have been very instrumental in ensuring that the people all over the world can enjoy their rights without the fear of being discriminated against or their rights being infringed by stronger entities in the society. Even in the modern times, Christianity has played a very vital role in ensuring that the rights of the people are protected and this is all over the world. Although there have been flaws in the way human rights have been approached by the faithful in different times in history, the fact that the faith has been advocating for these rights have been very helpful to various efforts by other entities to promote human rights all over the world. Bibliography Beckford, James (ed.) 1986. New Religious Movements and Rapid Social Change. Paris and London: UNESCO/Sage Publications. Benito, Elizabeth Odio 1989. Elimination of all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief. New York: United Nations. Concilium, Vol. 124 (1979) "The Church and the Rights of Man" D. Murray. "The Theological Basis for Human Rights" in Irish Theological Quarterly (1990) pp. 81 - 101. Elizabeth M. Bucar & Barbara Barnett - Does Human Rights Need God Michigan, Grand RAPID, 2005 Elizabeth M. Bucar & Barbara Barnett - Does Human Rights Need God Michigan, Grand RAPID, 2005 (only from Part II. Secular Reponses, Natural Law and Human Rights: A conversion by Robert P. George 135 -144 pp., Religion, Religions, and Human Rights by Louis Henkin 145 - 155 pp. Hannum, Hurst 1993. Documents on Autonomy and Minority Rights. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Marticus Nijhoff Publishers. Jack Mahoney - The Challenge of Human Rights, USA, Blackwell, 2008 John Paul II - Respect for Humane Rights: The secret of True Peace, Message for celebration of the world day of peace, 1 January 1999 Jurgen Habermas - Joseph Ratzinger, The dialectics of secularization, On reason and religion, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2006 P. Sieghart, "Christianity and Human Rights", The Month, Feb., 1989, pp. 46 - 53. Richard Tuck - Natural Rights Theories, Their origin and development - Cambridge University Press, 1979 Roger Ruston - Human rights and the image of God, London, SCM Press, 2004 Second Vatican council, Dignitatis Humanae, 1965 Thomas D. Williams - Who is my neighbour Personalism and the Foundations of human Rights, The Catholic University of America Press, 2005 (only Part 4. 219 - 282 pp.) Tibi, Bassam 1994. "Islamic Law/Shari'a, Human Rights, Universal Morality and International Relations", Human Rights Quaterly 16 (2): 227-299. Tierney, Brian - The idea of natural rights, Studies on Natural Rights, Natural Law and Church Law 1150-1625, Atlanta: Scholars Press for Emory University, 1997 Read More