| Issue: # 62 |
10 December 2009 |
|
What lies behind the huge growth of "rights discourse" in public life? Aside from intellectual debate, one vital element of the ongoing concern for human rights is practical action for human dignity, opposition to discrimination, and campaigning to end the death penalty, political imprisonment and other degrading treatments.
Those who like to theorise about these issues from the safe sidelines might therefore like to be reminded that what lies at the core of Human Rights Day 2009 (see our features and research) is not theory, but people in desperate situations.
"The glory of God", said St Irenaeus of Lyons, "is a human being fully alive." There may be much more to being fully alive than not being persecuted or abused, but there can never be less.
Similarly, if "rights" language is limiting, protective and constructed speech for regulating the behaviour of people in terms of juridical obligations, whereas the Christian message wishes to speak more fully of love, grace, neighbourliness, forgiveness and a shared divine image, that does not mean that the two are in competition or conflict - as people of faith wanting to justify discrimination or refuse action sometimes like to claim.
One way and another, all our material this week points back to the interconnection of "rights and obligations" - including the just use of resources implied in the Green New Deal (see Thinking in Action) and our book choice - an invaluable new text on Christian political responsibility from an Anabaptist perspective (Reading Allowed).
|
| Ekklesia works on a not-for-profit basis, and deliberately maintains its independence from large institutions and their funding. If you value this bulletin please consider making a donation to keep it going and support Ekklesia's work. You can do it through PayPal here |
| Non-discrimination is central to human rights |
|
By Navi Pillay
The concept of non-discrimination lies at the heart of human rights, says the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. For this reason, it has been designated the official theme of this Human Rights Day, which occurs every year on the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Read the whole article here |
| Liberating the Anglican understanding of sexuality |
|
By Savi Hensman
Mary Douglas Glasspool (when her appointment is confirmed and she is consecrated) and Eva Brunne will face challenges as bishops, says an Ekklesia associate, equalities adviser and Christian commentator. But they will also be a liberation for Anglicanism and for a truer biblical understanding of sexuality.
Read the whole article here
|
| Quota |
|
Sayings from the week and wisdom from the tradition
"Discrimination lies at the root of many of the world's most pressing human rights problems. No country is immune from this scourge. Eliminating discrimination is a duty of the highest order."
- Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
"As followers of a just and compassionate God we can recognise the justice and fairness of providing some legal protection for the reality of both same-sex and opposite-sex cohabiting relationships".
- Evangelical Alliance Ireland |
| Research Focus |
|
Equal regard for all
Human rights is an area Ekklesia takes a continuing interest in, both for news briefing and research purposes.
For us, it is a discourse grounded in the equal and loving regard God has for all in the Christian tradition. But is also a contested arena, politically and theologically. Churches have adopted contrasting attitudes. Religion and belief are controversial areas, as is the Equality Bill.
Meanwhile, we are participating in the Cutting Edge partnership and other alliances, seeking to end religious discrimination in faith schools, and examining the continuities and discontinuities between Christian thought and a "rights based discourse". |
| Media and web debate |
|
 Ekklesia in the news this week
Ekklesia co-director Jonathan Bartley has been a 'witness' on the BBC Radio 4 series 'The Moral maze', which was looking this week at the debate and argument around Christmas. Jonathan, exotically attired, stressed that those who want to focus on the original message of God's solidarity with suffering in humanity in Christ can do so without needing claim the Season as "ours", and without pouring cold water on others' celebrations. You can listen here (25 mins in): Meanwhile, Civil Society Media has picked up on our dialogue with the Methodists over green economics and their oil and energy investment policy, the New Statesman's Mehdi Hasan has referenced us in a piece on Jesus and Islam, and the Christian magazine Inspire has reported us and others on the URC's response to the Ugandan anti-homosexuality law. The Times Educational Supplement also referenced us with regard to Alpha in schools.
Ekklesia works on a not-for-profit basis. Please support Ekklesia's work with the press and other media by donating through PayPal here |
| Event: Human Rights Day 2009 |
|
International Human Rights day is marked on 10 December each year, but many participating groups across the world - including Christian and other faith communities - continue their activities for the week ahead of it and use it as a focus for reflection and advocacy throughout the year. The official website is here: http://www.ohchr.org |
| Thinking in Action |
|
A Greening New Deal
As the UN climate change talks take place in Copenhagen, and in concert with the government's pre-budget statement, the second report from the authors of the original Green New Deal argues that the British Chancellor is likely to miss a historic opportunity to tackle public debt, create thousands of new green jobs and kick-start the transformation to a low-carbon economy.
'The cuts won't work', the Green New Deal Group's second report, shows how, contrary to the policy of all the major political parties, cutting public spending now will tip the nation into a deeper recession by increasing unemployment, reducing the tax received and limiting government funding available to kick-start the Green New Deal.
Political economist Ann Pettifor, who also assists the churches' climate action network Operation Noah, and who blogs for Ekklesia (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/blog/306), is one of the co-authors.
Read the details here: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10776
|
|
Reading Allowed |
|
 Seek the Peace of the City: Christian Political Criticism as Public Realist, and Transformative, by Richard Bourne
A young English scholar offers an account of Christian public involvement strongly influenced by Anabaptism and other dissenting sources. "Imaginatively drawing on a wide range of theological literature, social, and political theory, Bourne, in a manner unlike anyone else, helps us see how the work of John Howard Yoder provides a constructive politics for Christians in our day. Only someone completely at home in Yoder's work could have written such a lucid and helpful book. Bourne, hopefully, has made John Howard Yoder indispensable for work in political theology." -Professor Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University.
ISBN: 9781556356421 (Wipf & Stock, 2009) 346pp. REDUCED from £34.75 to £29.54
For more information and to purchase through Ekklesia, click here
Visit our online bookstore's amazing pre-Christmas 15% sale. http://books.ekklesia.co.uk
| |
