Since 1948, and the signing of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights (UDHR), generations of world citizens have borne witness to those who have been moved to honor and affirm human dignity toward the creation of more just communities.
In the United States, for example, during the 1950’s folks were galvanized by the need for school, housing, and bus desegregation honoring the universal rights of every person to “freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state” (Article 13); “to take part in the government of their country through freely chosen representatives” (Article 21); and to education that promotes racial understanding and is “directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms” (Article 26).
In the 1960’s, the spirit to “[recognize] the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family” resulted in people relentlessly marching and protesting for the protection of voting and civil rights for all American citizens. Through the 1970’s the anti- war and environmental movement swept the national conversation. Furthermore, the 1980’s and 1990’s brought with them movements against apartheid and for the protection of immigrant rights in the workplace.
And during my life time, this same spirit resulted in movements to occupy Wall Street; to demand the social and political equality for LGBTQ Americans in political and social life; to demand for policies and practices which reflect that black lives matter, and in the words of Min. Ashley Popperson of First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain, we have seen the emergence of a #MeToo movement that has shed much needed light on the “disgust at our nation’s [disregard] of the minds and bodies of women.”
Yet, these gains have not been had without opposition and criticism from those who would prefer to regress our nation’s policies and to rollback the inalienable rights of humans everywhere. In our current political and social discourse, we have seen and heard in recent years and months an assault on decency, liberty, and dignity for all people which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights set out to respect.
As the Preamble of the UDHR states, “whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of [humankind] . . .”; today, therefore, reminds us that there is still much work to be done to alleviate our generations of outrage. Moreover, we are reminded that we must continue to remember and by moved by our obligation to champion the rights and humanity of people around the world so that no one is made to feel disenfranchised, marginalized, neglected, or dehumanized.
As the philosopher Aristotle penned over 2000 years ago, it is “the duty of every citizen to share in the administration of justice.” Likewise, it is the responsibility of everyone compelled by the creation of just community to vote, to protest, and to continuously be informed of the needs of their community because only through actualizing our duty to community is the free and full development of [our] personality [made] possible” (Article 29).
As the New Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival, led by Rev. Drs Liz Theoharis and William Barber illustrates, each of us has an obligation to stand up against attacks against voting rights, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation, and a distorted moral narrative of a right-wing religious extremist. Or, in a more intimate manner, each of us has an obligation to make accessible welcoming and affirming spaces so that all of God’s children can be received in community which celebrates their unique belovedness and intrinsic God-likeness.
Thus, in the words of Colin Kaepernick, it is the duty of every just citizen to “believe in something even in if that means sacrificing everything.” Because through our obligation to engage our world, we will make sacred our institutions in the ways that we treat one another; make sacred our traditions in the ways that we honor each other; make sacred our neighborhoods in the ways we love one another; and ultimately make us more just in the ways we are guided to create peace in our communities.
My Thinking Deeper 