The Role Of Christians In The Erosion Of Human Rights

I cannot believe how much things have changed in my lifetime, and how much they have changed for the worse. When I was young, when I was growing up, it seemed as if we were moving to a more just society. It seemed that human dignity was being respected all around. It seemed that racism was on the decline. No, things were not perfect, nor would they ever be perfect, but more people understood the progress we had made in society and were set to defend that progress. Conservatives and liberals, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and atheists all seemed to desire to move beyond the evils of the past. They knew they needed to work together instead of turning on each other, that they needed to stop treating each other as enemies. Racism, eugenics, sexism, and the like were all understood to be wrong, even if there were some debates as to what constituted them. It seemed that only a few thought differently, but, in reality, they were much more in number than I knew, and they worked behind the scenes to orchestrate a shift back towards their degenerate ideology, and it is their legacy which we now face in the world today. And most of those promoting such a radical change view themselves, in some fashion, as being Christian, or at least coming from the Christian tradition.

I could not have predicted the heel turn public Christianity would take in the United States. As a Christian, I was told God’s love for humanity meant we must protect human life, all human life, and to love everyone because God loved everyone. The more I studied theology, especially moral theology, but also theological anthropology, the more I understood, from the Christian perspective that I held that I should engage empathy with others, putting myself in the shoes of others, discerning how I would feel with if I experienced what they experienced. If, in doing so, I saw that it was something I would not like to experience, then I knew it was wrong and I should work to rectify the situation. In my advanced studies, I learned that society had not truly dealt with the sins of the past, such as racism; while things had improved, the root causes remained. Those who benefited from racism, or their descendants, continued to benefit from racism, while those whose lives were destroyed by racism, or their descendants, continued to find racism harming them in a society which pretended to be color blind. In this way, I learned about the systemic structures that affected society and how those structures reinforced the sins of the past. I saw that they had to be dismantled if we are to get beyond them. I also learned about the preferential option for the poor and oppressed, learning that society will be, and so should be, judged on how it treats those in need.

I was raised to be pro-life, to view all human life is to be cherished; it was not mere political rhetoric, but a principle, one which I took seriously. Over the years, I saw how many use the rhetoric but do not truly believe it; they use it politically, trying to have people look away from their own policies by claiming their opponents do not respect human life. It should be obvious now how many who have said as much have only projected their own cruelty upon others as we see how quickly the dehumanize groups they do not like, and use such dehumanization to attack them (and sometimes, even, justify killing them). With the Trump administration, and how many backing Trump claim to be pro-life Christians, we see what they really mean: they only want to protect the lives of certain groups of people, and no other. They claim to hate abortion, and yet have no problem when immigrant women detained by authorities have a miscarriage (thus, making the state responsible for an abortion); they claim human life is sacred, but have no problem demeaning those who say what we should all say, that is, black lives matters.

To be sure, the problems were there long before Trump, but Trump is the one who has given them power to do as they wish, even as they have given Trump power to do as he wishes. There is a symbiosis going on between them, and what ties them together is hatred, hatred for the other, be it someone of a different sexual orientation, a different religion, or someone coming from a culture they detest. Their combined hatred brings them together. They seek to abuse, control, and or destroy, those they hate. Hate allows for dehumanization, and dehumanization allows for the elimination of basic rights and protections for those they hate. This is where we are at in the United States: more people are being denied basic rights, and all kinds of sophistry is being used to try to make it appear legal, sophistry which probably only a few really believe, because what lies behind it all is hatred justifying itself. Such hate has eroded due process. Now, all the United States needs to do to justify murder is claim those killed, without trial, without true evidence of a crime, are criminals, and nothing else; we saw this years ago, on a very small scale, with the way the killers of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, and others, were defended, and now we see it on an international scale in the way the United States is executing countless Venezuelans in international waters. Even if the United States were right, and the people on the boats they destroy were engaged in the drug trade, the United States has long had ways to deal with drug running without a shoot to kill order. In reality, those following Trump do not care if the claim is true or not; they are bloodthirsty, and they revel in death.

I constantly write upon moral issues, and with them, address various political concerns. Previously, I have said  that I wish I did not have to do so. I  prefer to deal with the good in the world, seek to bring all that is good together, and use that good to help everyone become better, to make for a more just society. To be sure, that is what I am trying to do in my reflections, but I am doing it in a way that requires me to look to the darkness which is out there, to see the cruelty,  to see how bad things have become in my lifetime and mourn what could have been. While much of what I write could be written for a secular audience, without need to bring in Christian reflections, I write as a Christian who sees many of his fellow Christians not only going far astray, but being the major force behind the cruelty which is going on today. That is, I find my fellow Christians, more than anyone else, are those who are working to undermine the value of human life, and to change the United States by turning it into a police state which can mistreat anyone at will. In doing so, I hope that much of what I write will be recognized as valid by non-Christians, even as I add Christian content to respond to such Christians, to make it clear they are going against what Christ taught.  I would like to do more. I would like to focus on systematic theological and spiritual writings, but the reality is, I have to deal with the world I live in, and work to make it better, because theoria without praxis, faith without fidelity to the expectations of love, will always prove to be a dead end.

* This Is Another Post From My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series

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