Human Rights Day: December 10th
By Mark Doerksen
Photo by Kevin Crosby on Unsplash
I came across a story a few years ago now that has both historical and Baptist roots, a story of Baptist missionaries who worked hard at relieving the oppression of the Congolese people at the hand of Belgian King Leopold as he sought rubber for the increased production of tires, globally. Alice Seeley married John Harris in Britain, and together they left for missionary work in the Congo. Before leaving for the Congo, Alice was gifted a Kodak Brownie camera, and this enabled her to document the atrocities happening to the Congolese people. She managed to get the photos out of the country and traveled through the United States and Britain to stir up public pressure against inhumane activities occurring in the Congo. She took the now famous photo of a Congolese father looking at his daughter’s remains on the stoop of her home. Her photographs and testimony were instrumental in bringing about the end of forced labour practices in the Congo. (Pictures were worth thousands of words - The Globe and Mail; for a 15 minute video, see https://www.lowellmilkencenter.org/newsroom/videos/view/kodak-in-the-congo-the-untold-story-of-alice-seeley-harris).
Stories of Baptists helping improve the lives of others are not new, of course. If you were to peruse the history of the Baptists globally, you would find that many a Baptist has contributed greatly to not only the spread of the gospel, but also to help give voice to the marginalized. William Carey, a famous Baptist missionary to India, worked hard in so many ways, and made significant contributions to the abolishment of female immolation, as well as the practice of infanticide. Additionally, Baptists have long been interested in human dignity, liberty, and rights, and these sorts of concerns are already evident in some of the earliest Baptist writings. Thomas Helwys, as early as 1612, was already concerned about separation of church and state, and about religious freedom for all without compulsion (Propositions and Conclusions concerning True Christian Religion, containing a Confession of Faith of certain English people, living in Amsterdam; Articles 84 and 85).
December 10 has been designated as Human Rights Day. Human Rights came to renewed prominence after World War 2, as the United Nations was formed in 1945 in response to the atrocities committed during that global war. In 1948, representatives from the United Nations, under the guidance of the First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, announced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This was essentially a list of 30 rights and freedoms that each human being should enjoy, and they continue to inform international human rights law. (What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? | Amnesty International UK)
Given our Baptist tendencies towards spreading the gospel and improving the lives of those around us, how might we relate to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights today? To be sure, there can be controversy when it comes to the Human Rights dialogue, one of which can be a “potential loss of robust theological shaping and content” [Paul Doerksen, An Anabaptist Account of the Ecclesiological Shaping of the Relationship Between Theology and Human Rights Discourse: MQR 89 (April 2015)]. Others may say that a reading of the New Testament emphasizes how believers are to treat each other within the church, and that this ought to be our focus as opposed to those outside the church. Still others are concerned that Human Rights can too easily be used to serve nationalistic and ideological agendas.
Perhaps a way forward is to consider some of the work put together by the Baptist World Alliance, an organization the CBWC is associated with via our ties with the North American Baptist Federation. The Baptist World Alliance developed a Declaration on Human Rights in 1980 and has sought to keep human rights issues on the radar of the global Baptist population. The Declaration suggests that to simply declare human rights is not enough. Instead, in the following efforts, Baptists seek to advance human rights in our world. First, evangelization remains important, for if we can agree that human rights are derived from God as all humans being created in his image, then it remains important for people to know God. Second, education is important, as people need to understand that the claims of Christianity teach us, for example, that dividing walls based on faith or race are not okay (Ephesians 2). Third, declaration, sounding the alarm when human rights are violated, remains significant. And fourth, The Declaration of Human Rights suggests that action is critical; Christians should minister in Jesus’ name to individuals whose human rights have been violated.
Some of this may seem far off, perhaps a little too difficult or controversial to consider. Yet if we look more closely at our world, at our nation, we will find situations where perhaps we need to revisit what it means to advance human rights from a Christian perspective. Given our historical Baptist precedence, let us do our theological homework and act accordingly as we seek to minister in Jesus’ name.