Eruptions at the Foot of the Volcano (Leonardo Ricardo) has a long piece which celebrates a UN decision on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and attacks the attitudes of conservative Anglicans:
(New York, December 18, 2008) – ¨In a powerful victory for the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 66 nations at the UN General Assembly today supported a groundbreaking statement confirming that international human
rights protections include sexual orientation and gender identity. It is the first time that a statement condemning rights abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people has been presented in the General Assembly.¨
Human rights are incommensurable with the hierarchical structuring of religion and the absolute legitimation of ecclesiastical authority as God given.
Therefore human rights should be of the deepest concern to all faithful people: how have we built a church, any church, that is capable of acting against people because they do not fit an expected mould? How can we belong to a church which does not regard every person as of equal value before God and, therefore, of equal value in our own eyes? How can we support a church which does not actively oppose all violence against God's children?
There is something rotten in our relationship with God.
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Subsequent note: the Vatican signed up to the statement, the US refused to. Is this perhaps because the US might have to do something about it while the Vatican never would?
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