International Human Rights Day

What an irony of situation that Pinochet died on IHRD. Riots & violence were sparked by his death just as was true of his life. Did his fascism & repression trump Allende's socialism?....or did the CIA pick him not for ideology but for being a more willing partner? Nixon's 'Red Scare' would have searched out another to kill Allende if Pinochet had not been so willing, but is not Dubya carrying out similar scares in Iraq that kill & maim in the name of 'spreading democracy'? We are on the verge of surpassing 3,000 deaths now, not including deaths among the contractors & certainly pale by the 300,000 deaths of Iraqi civilians. All of these categories contain individual humans who had some claim to Human Rights, but they are just as dead as if they were vermin. As the Psalmist said, "How long, O Lord? How long?"

We hear about a lack of competent Arabic translators in Iraq that leads to a category of loss all its own, but if so, why did the U.S. Army see fit to fire half of its translators? Because those individuals were part of the 'discharges' for sexually deviant or incorrigible! Who took their places? People from contrators with NO competence to read the language & with the barest of street speech that was hardly skillful enough to deal with nuance. We put ourselves in that position merely because the terminated individuals were....."gay." Does how one was born inhibit Human Rights? Will Ted Haggard be addressing this in terms of his suppressed life one day soon?

People in Britain are complaining about the intrusion of CCTV cameras everywhere, but we (or in OUR name) whisk people off to Guantanamo gulag by second or third countries under the name of 'renditions.' Terror is inflicted, but it's OK in the name of 'fighting terrorism.' But who said? Only Bush's band of merrymen, who leave us all with a lot of restitution to do.

IHRD needs a notation on our calendars so that we can teach from it was Human Rights really are.

International Human Rights Day? I'm living in Europe, which tries much harder than the US to promote a human rights image, and didn't hear a thing about it except on this website.

I wish that some of the counties around here would start thinking about human rights.

The treatment of the poor and homeless is horrible in some of these counties. I'd have to ask permission to share some of the things I've learned lately- but in the name of GREED, people are being brutalized. Their civil and human rights are being trampled. And nobody cares, because, after all, they're just poor people (and according to most Americans therefore lazy and good for nothing). The counties know they're going to get away with it because the people don't have the money to fight.

And let us not forget torture and the loss of Habeas Corpus. The rape of Iraq. Need I go on?

The US doesn't lead the pack in Human Rights- at least not in reality. It falls far behind.

Only in hypocritical preaching does the US lead.

Well, I never claimed the U.S. leads the world in human rights protection. If that was ever true, it hasn't been for some time.

We did play a crucial role in the writing and adoption of the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948), thanks to Eleanor Roosevelt who was the U.S. rep. to the drafting committee. But Lester Pierson of Canada (the only Canadian to win the Nobel Peace Prize) and others also played crucial roles. And the U.S. has been a major violator for years.

I was writing, I thought, to Christians. I want Christians to reclaim this concept and work harder to protect human rights. There is a theology that says all talk of rights is selfish--and that theology leads to impotence in the face of torture and other violations to the dignity of humans made in the image of God.

I would hope that you consider us to be Christians!

Rights being selfish? You know, I think I've heard that kind of preaching (no need to say where). It reminds me of when I asked for prayers for justice FOR us, and a fundamentalist-leaning woman told me that "Christians never ask for justice, they only do it!"

That is SICK theology!

Thanks, Bob. My comment about writing for Christians was not to cast aspersions on people in the comments section. Rather, it was because most comments centered around the question of whether or how much the U.S. government lives up to human rights standards. Well, my column criticized many governments and other powerful actors--but I wrote not to urge governments to act, but to urge Christians to renew OUR OWN commitment to human rights--including by getting involved in one or more organizations working to defend and extend human rights protections. I was expecting responses more on that kind of challenge.

Yeah. I've been fighting hard against the attitudes towards people who are homeless and/or poor. People can get involved in activities in their local area quite easily... there is certainly enough abuse of human rights to go around!

I was just thinking of a slogan we could use on this topic: Get educated- get active- get involved!

People don't understand or know the ramifications of the issues, they tend to sit back and hope someone else does the work, and you know how people are about getting involved!

The people on this SIG are generally already involved in human rights issues to one extent or another (except probably for the trolls). So, in a sense promoting these issues here is preaching to the choir.

Years ago, I heard a sermon that I liked. The priest used an anology based upon the cross- the crossbar is our relationship with others, and the vertical bar is our relationship with God. You take either away and it no longer is a cross.

Human rights issues gets to the heart of the crossbar. If someone isn't willing to grant to others the things they want for themselves, they are in effect denying the cross.

Not to mention going counter to what Teyose taught.

As far as I can tell, Bob, the "trolls" are the largest percentage of readers of these blogs. I cannot find but a handful of progressive Christians who read these pages. When I ask elsewhere in the progressive blogosphere, few have heard of CAP. (Hopefully, that will change.0 So, if I am going to contribute here, I have to write assuming that the majority of readers are NOT progressive in faith and need to be persuaded of such elementary items as persuing human rights--including, as you rightly point out, just and compassionate treatment of the poor and homeless.

Yes but look at all the gays that have been belittled and killed, and we spent billions on getting abortion outlawed you know how much you wanted us to do that. Don’t you just love us God

6: 24 "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money
JIM WALLIS IS PREACHING ABOUT A BIBLE TORN APART. Wallis tells the crowd at the Seattle Pacific University chapel that when he was in seminary, a fellow student took hold of an old Bible and cut out "every single reference to the poor."
"And when we were done, that Bible was literally in shreds. It was falling apart in my hands. It was a Bible full of holes. I would take it out to preach and say, 'Brothers and sisters, this is our Bible

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!