Justice Focus: Discrimination

February 2, 2010 by Clint Houlbrook
Filed under Events, Features, Justice Calendar

February 1, 2010

Discrimination - all types This February for the justice calendar we will focus on human rights, diversity, examples of when human rights are broken, and how God’s people can be a catalyst for change by defending the rights of all people. The underlying theme of discrimination emerges from it all.

God created man and woman in his own image and likeness. Check it out – Genesis 1:26-27! There is one people, one human race. Everyone was intended to be born as a free human and equal in dignity and rights.

GOOD INTENTIONS
When God created the world and people, he poured his own characteristics in to all he created. As you looking at the world God created you can deduce that God loves diversity. There is not only one type of flower, or one example of a bird, but many millions of a flowers, bugs, fish and birds. There is also this same diversity within the united human race. This is a sign that our creator God is able to look at all the variety he created and say “it is good”.

OOPS
Unfortunately we have not lived by God’s instructions or used His wisdom. We have done our own thing and as a result things are really messed up on our planet. Human rights are broken, violence grows, blood is spilled, people are oppressed, genocide occurs again and again. Anything that is different from “I”or “Me” is feared, disliked and a “them and us” world is created. Sound familiar?

Human rights and ethics are involved together. This fact leads us to encounter the difficult terrain of human rights issues like:

if a man steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving family – is it wrong?
is it right to clone humans?
in abortion, who has the rights, the unborn child or the pregnant woman?

There are difficult issues to navigate and we must do so with love and understanding, imagining what it must be like to be in the other person’s place. If you’re a Christian, you need to approach these issues, situations and people involved with grace and when appropriate, biblical truth with L-O-V-E.

This month we will explore themes of restoring human rights to all within the context that all people are created in God’s own image and likeness.

RESOURCES
Downloads:
World Vision – Human Rights resources

Websites:
UN Declaration of Human Rights
Youth for Human Rights
Human Rights Watch
Salvation Army positional statement on human diversity
Amnesty International
Global Youth Human Rights Movement
International Human Rights Project
Youth Council of Europe
Canada’s International Human Rights Policy
Christian Solidarity Worldwide
World Health Organisation
Salvation Army Ethics centre