Theology and Human Rights--do they go together, or is one confined to the dusty past and the other held captive by secular discourse?

People of faith everywhere must come together to embrace Human Rights approaches as a common tool for building bridges between all sorts of groups.  There IS and SHOULD be a moral and ethical dimension to all public policies, but this is not always easy to accomplish in a diverse society with separation of church and state.  Persons who do not profess any particular faith or religion have every right to expect that their laws will attend to their wishes as well as those of any religious majority or minority.  The long history of religious persecution of minorities of every sort leads to the inevitable conclusion that religious morality must model and persuade others to its point of view, not compel by means of law or force.  But, as it happens, progressive and moderate voices in religion who support HR for all, even those who believe differently or not at all, are often bypassed by the world media in favor of the more conflictive, blanket pronouncements of those who read religious traditions exclusively and who seek to impose their own views on others ‘for their own good’.

Those of us who accept our position as members of a planetary culture that values all and finds good reason to make common cause must no longer sit quietly when religious leaders pronounce hate, jihad, holy war, or crusades.  We must stand with all the peoples of the planet in their desires for a just, peaceful, sustainable future.

The situation for women around the world is grim, especially where women live under dictatorships or in conflict zones.  The links and writings presented here are your gateway to finding a group you can work with to make your faith into meaningful action.  Many of us working in Human Rights or Religion seeking reform have found that our best option is to speak ‘woman to woman’, as the Israeli feminist peace, justice, and women’s rights site has named itself.  In particular, it is important to reach out across our boundaries, to give support as we are able, to remain informed, and to act locally as well as globally to materially improve the lives of women and children.  All development issues have shown that when women are educated, healthy and able to work as needed, the whole family--and hence, society--is elevated to a higher standard of living and greater measure of justice.

Remember your Scriptures, whatever they are!!!  Jesus takes much of his ethical teachings from the Torah, which states (a bit ambiguously, it is true, but we still get the idea):

You Shall NOT Stand Idly By While Your Neighbor is Bleeding! (Lev. 19:16b)...

So, how about you?