Have you ever found yourself in a conversation where someone was asserting their rights? The conversation seems to go something like, “It’s my right to…” We do have rights in Australia such as the right to vote if you’re over 18 years of age. This comes with the responsibility to be an actively informed participant in the electoral process.
Human rights connect us to each other through a shared set of rights and responsibilities. A person’s ability to enjoy their human rights depends on other people respecting those rights. This means that human rights involve responsibility and duties towards other people and the community. Individuals have a responsibility to ensure that they exercise their rights with consideration for the rights of others. (Australian Human Rights Commission)
There has been an ongoing discussion in Australia about the rights of faith-based schools. This in turn raises the question, what might be the responsibilities of Lutheran learning communities? As I’ve spent the last few years trying to navigate this legislative space, the LCA’s Doctrinal Statement and Theological Opinion on Human Rights has been my companion. I encourage you to read the whole document here. Some key points are:
CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES
- Rights are the Creator’s gift to his creatures. The right to life, property, and honour are protected by the Ten Commandments. They are also safeguarded by the New Testament, even if it does not speak of ‘rights’ in the modern sense of freedoms universally recognised and capable of enforcement by law. Believers see every good thing as a gracious gift of God’s generosity (Matt 20:15). This is especially true of the most important right: to be called children of God (John 1:12). Yet believers also recognise and affirm the gracious gifts which the Creator has given to all his creatures, including non-believers.
- Our Lord is the perfect example of compassion for suffering humanity and solidarity with them. He stands beside those who suffer discrimination. He associates freely with the unclean, with social outcasts, and with those who, like the Samaritans, are objects of racial and religious hatred. He proclaims the gracious justice of the heavenly Father who showers his gifts on the evil and the good (Matt 5:45). He does not discriminate between people when dispensing God’s grace, and he calls his disciples to reflect divine mercy and justice in their own lives (Matt 25:34–36).
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
- Christians should act to overcome hatred or contempt, in themselves and in others, toward particular groups in society. They should be aware of how easily a particular group can come to be viewed with such hatred or contempt that it is felt that any action against those people is justified. Christians need to be particularly careful to respect and defend the rights of people whose values and attitudes are different from their own, or whose lifestyle or behaviour they disapprove of.
- If Christians feel the need to defend their own rights, they should be careful never to use means that do violence to other people and those people’s rights. Where the exercise of their own rights may be offensive or harmful to others, Christians should be prepared, if necessary, to forgo their rights for the benefit of the others and for the sake of harmony.
What strikes me whenever I read this is the emphasis on my responsibilities towards others rather than what rights I assert for myself.
We are currently engaged in advocating for religious educational institutions to have certain rights under Australian Commonwealth law. This is balanced with our responsibilities to all people. For example, our submissions have theological and church governance approval to say, “In welcoming all to be employed or enrolled in Lutheran education communities, Lutheran education does not and is not seeking to discriminate against any staff or student based on their personal attributes (e.g. race, culture, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, marital status, parental status, pregnancy etc).”
In Lutheran education we believe that learning opens our hearts and minds to the diversity of human perspectives, experiences, and wisdom traditions. It develops our capacity for compassion, selflessness, and advocacy.
We are free to witness to the universality of God’s grace, especially as shown in the gift to all humanity of Jesus, his own suffering Son.