Support for human rights within the church is not limited to statements by theologians or world church leaders. Nor do Western Christians dominate this witness. Around the globe the cry for human rights resounds in the churches. In the last few years Protestants and Roman Catholics have joined in the struggle for human rights, and today Christians everywhere are providing leadership for the human rights movement.

In this chapter I will describe the human rights advocacy in the churches around the world. I will begin with activity in the churches in Europe, then discuss the struggle in the churches of Africa and Asia, and finally conclude with a description of the Latin American human rights movement. I will not discuss human rights activities by Christians in North America, as these are generally well known.¹

In 1971 Theo C. van Boven, who was then the only person in Holland teaching a human rights course, observed "that the churches are becoming more and more interested in human rights in the 'wider sense'; i.e., that they are no longer interested only in their 'own folk' but in human rights in a universal sense."² In the next several years Christian advocacy of human rights in Europe would grow substantially.

Seven years later IDOC International published a collection of documents reprinted from Eastern and Western Europe on religious involvement in the human rights movement. Among the documents are statements by Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox leaders. For example, Renate Riemeck of the Evangelical Church in Germany wrote in 1977: "Jesus Christ vested us with human dignity. So deep are the roots of human rights."³

That same year Monsignor Roger Etchegaray, president of the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference of France, Pasteur Jacques Maury for the French Protestant Federation, and His Excellency Monsignor Meletios, the Orthodox Metropolitan of France, released a common declaration containing the following statement:

Similarly, the Federation of Evangelical Churches of the German Democratic Republic affirmed that "in the light of the Gospel, the churches' task in the field of human rights is a comprehensive one and cannot be limited to the aspects of freedom of belief and freedom of conscience."⁵

In Hungary the Evangelical Lutheran Church asserted that the older individualistic view of human rights is inconsistent with the Gospel, and that the churches need to come to terms with socialism. "By the grace of God, we are in the privileged position to have already undergone that epochal change which the appearance of socialism has meant in the history of the world."⁶ Socialism is not seen as a form of oppression, but as "a call to daily service and witness."⁷ However, too often

The ideology of individualism "may hinder Christians in their cooperation with non-Christians on an honest human basis, and acting out of their faith for common human goals, whereas such a cooperation today is vital to the survival of mankind."⁹

In the Soviet Union church groups involved in human rights advocacy include: the Adventist Group for Legal Struggle and Investigation of Facts concerning the Persecution of Believers in the USSR, the Christian Seminar on the Problems of Religious Renaissance, the Council of Relatives of Prisoners of Evangelical Christian-Baptists, the Fraternal Council of Christians of Evangelical-Pentecostal Faith, the Fund to Aid the Evangelical Christian-Pentecostals of Russia, and the Group for the Defense of the Rights of Evangelical Christian-Pentecostals.¹⁰

In a letter to its more than one hundred member churches including Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican expressions of Christian faith in every European country except Albania, the Conference of European Churches (CEC) noted that as early as 1967 the CEC had worked for a conference of European governments which was finally accomplished at Helsinki. It urged its members to avoid using human rights "as a propaganda weapon" but asserted: "The member churches of CEC recognize their obligation to inform their respective governments in appropriate fashion of shortcomings in the implementation of social or individual rights."¹¹

Both on the continent and in Britain, Christians have been involved in the human rights campaign against torture. In 1978 Christians in France organized Action des Chrétiens pour l'Abolition de la Torture (Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture) through religious orders and church congregations. ACAT uses the same methods of letter writing and adoption of prisoners as Amnesty International, but its members also pray for both the perpetrators and victims of torture. The organization now has about three hundred groups in eleven countries, with over thirteen thousand members in France alone.¹²

In 1984 the Ministers responsible for cultural affairs in the member countries of the Council of Europe, including the Holy See, issued a statement entitled "European Declaration on Cultural Objectives" which was reprinted in Church and Culture, the bulletin of the Pontifical Council for Culture. This declaration affirms that "The main aim of our societies is to enable everyone to achieve personal fulfillment, in an atmosphere of freedom and respect for human rights. . .."¹³

Monsignor Paul Poupard, as president and chief officer of the Pontifical Council for Culture, led the delegation from the Holy See that helped draft this declaration. He argued that

Similarly, Fr. Hervé Carrier, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, stressed the need to guarantee "the cultural rights of believers" in today's pluralistic societies.¹⁵

In addition to statements in support of human rights, the churches of Europe provide space for organizations working on human rights issues and incorporate human rights issues into worship. The International Human Rights Conference held in Krakow, Poland 25-28 April 1988, "could not have been organized or convened without the help of the Church" and its many parishes.¹⁶ In the Church of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, where the conference was held, and in surrounding churches, "images of the Pope, Lech Walesa, the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, Popielusko (the priest slain in 1984), the recently beatified Edith Stein, and Solidarnosc mementoes" were surrounded by constantly lit candles giving "evidence of the tight links between the Church—some parishes more than others, inevitably—and the human rights movement represented by Solidarity."¹⁷

In Africa the Christian churches are part of a "new consciousness" which the Diocese of Nampula described as follows in a report in 1977 to the Mozambican National Pastoral Assembly: "There is no doubt that the event of independence and the revolutionary process have deeply affected our way of life and, consequently, our way of being Christians and expressing our faith."¹⁸

Yet, this new consciousness is in some ways a return to an older way of thinking. A Communique of the Pan African Conference of Third World Theologians, which was held in Ghana in 1977, asserts that resistance to "the suppression of human rights and the violation of human dignity" is to be understood with a renewed appreciation of the traditional setting where there is "no dichotomy between the sacred and the secular."¹⁹ The values of religion belong in politics and are to be derived from the African experience: "The God of History speaks to all peoples in particular ways. In Africa the traditional religions are a major source for the study of the African experience of God."²⁰ Thus, in 1975 the thirty participants from Protestant, Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions in the "first church-sponsored consultation on violations of human rights in the independent countries of black Africa" called for "a recovery of our own political, economic and cultural styles and [means of] applying them to the task of development."²¹

In Africa today it is argued that the "entire teaching ministry of the churches—from literacy programs to theological education--should place emphasis on human rights."²² The 1975 consultation called for a Human Rights Commission for Africa, commended the Christian Council of Lesotho for its legal assistance program, and recommended "that churches become actively involved in promoting human rights throughout Africa through awareness-building and support for those whose rights are abused."²³

Burgess Carr, as secretary-general of the all-African Conference of Churches, presented a "Biblical and Theological Basis for the Struggle for Human Rights" to this consultation on human rights. He affirmed that

Similarly, Canaan Banana, a Zimbabwe Methodist minister, has argued that because God cares for them, "the oppressed have the right to stand up and fight for their freedom with every means at their disposal."²⁵

The Associated Members of the Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa (AMECEA), made up of the Catholic bishops of Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, published in 1979 a "Declaration on Human Rights and Social Justice," affirming that

In a pastoral letter the Catholic bishops of Angola asserted that all believers "should be aware of their rights" and, quoting Gaudium et Spes, that the church wants "to be able to develop freely for the welfare of all, in any political regime which acknowledges the fundamental rights of the individual and his family for a common well-being."²⁷

Numerous human rights articles have appeared in the African Christian, a pan-African and interdenominational newsletter published fortnightly in Nairobi, Kenya. Human rights issues are also discussed in other African church periodicals.²⁸ The Catholic bishops of the seven Eastern African countries, in the ninth AMECEA plenary in Tanzania, appealed "to all people in Eastern Africa to respect the human person" and "to all leaders to develop institutions which protect these human rights of all."²⁹

The All Africa Conference of Churches, the most representative ecumenical organization in Africa,³⁰ discussed among other agenda items at its Fourth Assembly "The Gospel—Good News to the Poor (Human Rights)."³¹ Moreover, it affirmed that "all men are created equal before God, and ought therefore to enjoy equal rights to life, health, information and freedom of choice."³²

In a 1986 issue of African Christian Studies, Rev. Joseph Kariuki argued from Roman Catholic social teaching that because "every human being has an in-born or natural right to life" the primary "or inalienable right to life carries with it the secondary or consequent right to the means necessary to sustain life with human dignity."³³ In the same issue Rev. J. M. Waliggo put human rights concerns into a prayer. At the second station of the cross the people pray: "May they [the African people] build a new future on the blood and suffering of all who have witnessed your ideals of human rights, justice and love for all."³⁴ At the fifth station of the cross the people pray:

And at the eleventh station of the cross the people pray for all innocent prisoners and to "Strengthen all organizations, especially Amnesty International, and those individuals who give hope to such people."³⁶

In South Africa Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu has written of "A Prophetic Church and Human Rights in the Third World," and Trevor Huddleston has argued that Bishop Tutu expresses the essential truth about Christian faith: "that it is based on an infinite respect for human dignity and human rights because of the fact that God himself has taken human nature and therefore endowed it with an infinite purpose and meaning which transcend the barriers of color, race and creed."³⁷ Moreover, in a letter to the South African Minister of Justice, pastor Allan Boesak asserted: "Your policy is unjust, it denies people their basic human rights and it undermines their humanity."³⁸

T. Simon Gqubule, principal of John Wesley College of the Federal Theological Seminary in Alice, has written that: "Apartheid stands for the separation of races whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Christian gospel stress the essential unity of the human race. . . ."³⁹ And C. M. Ramusi, Minister of the Interior of Lebowa Legislative Assembly, has asserted:

John Rees, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, has argued for a Bill of Human Rights in South Africa because: "The Gospel constrains us and demands of us to recognize the dignity of all men."⁴¹

The Seventh Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) in 1981 asserted that Asians "are increasingly becoming conscious of their rights . . . even as these rights are being denied on every side."⁴² In 1986 Chinese theologian C. S. Song wrote: "Struggles for human rights are taking place not just in remote lands, but right here in Asian lands. Aspiration for freedom and democracy is not merely the political right of the so-called democratic West; it is also a political right in Asia."⁴³

The human rights struggle in the churches began at least fifteen years earlier when the Human Rights Working Group of the Christian Conference of Asia, with participants from most Asian countries, issued a statement affirming that

The statement asserts that the "Christian witness in the history of Asian peoples is intertwined with the struggle of the people for liberty and justice" and that one of "the basic facts of the Asian people's experience" is the violation of human rights: "It is in this Asian historical context that we express our theological convictions on human rights."⁴⁵

By 1986 the Christian Conference of Asia had grown to include over one hundred churches and national councils from sixteen countries. On "Asia Sunday," the Sunday before Pentecost, the theme of the special observance was "Fulfilling the Servant Ministry of the Church," and prayers offered for the peoples of Asia in its represented countries included numerous references to concerns for justice and four specific references to "human rights."⁴⁶ A year later, the following prayer of thanksgiving was suggested for observance of Asia Sunday:

The liturgy, prepared by the Seminari Theologi Malaysia and edited by the CCA, concludes with a prayer of petition: "Enable us by your Holy Spirit to struggle for justice and human rights, and to be agents of mercy and reconciliation."⁴⁸

In addition to caste, many other human rights problems are being addressed within the Indian churches.⁴⁹ In his study of the philosophy and history of human rights in India, K. K. Kuriakose notes that by 1980

He concludes: "It is a Christian duty to preach, teach, and fight to liberate the millions of economically and socially oppressed people and thereby secure their human rights and dignity."⁵¹

The quarterly bulletin of the Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society devoted a whole issue in 1977 to the controversy in India over Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's emergency decree in 1975 suspending many constitutional rights. The editorial board justified this coverage on the grounds that "the mission of the churches is not merely or primarily to safeguard Christian 'communal' interests but to work for the human dignity and rights of all citizens of this country."⁵²

In this issue it was reported that clergy representing the various churches of Kerala⁵³ had formed a "Clergy Fellowship Concerned with Human Rights" and had jointly affirmed: "We believe the struggle of Christians for Human Rights is a fundamental response to Jesus Christ."⁵⁴ Their statement concludes:

They ground their "concerns for human rights" on the "conviction that God wills a society in which all can exercise full human rights."⁵⁶

An editorial The Examiner, quotes the document on "The Church and Human Rights" issued by the Pontifical Commission Justitia et Pax to argue that private property is a conditional right which derives "from the law of the communal purpose of earthly goods as ordained by the Creator," whereas fundamental rights "are human because they belong to the very nature of man":

Therefore, "Christ's solidarity with all men is the reason for the Church's strong defense of human rights wherever they are trampled underfoot, as indeed they are in so many countries."⁵⁸

In 1986 in India participants in a National Conference on "The Emerging Church of the Poor" affirmed that "the marginalized" have begun "to assert their inalienable right to participate in decision-making processes" because there is

Moreover, they asserted, "This view of human life is what faith affirms."⁶⁰

Examples of personal witness abound. At a "Symposium on Asian Spirituality" held in Indonesia in 1983, the Rev. Donald Kanagarataam of Sri Lanka reported that he had left teaching at Lanka College "to enter an experimental ministry to work on human rights" and "had twice been arrested for 'doing Christian ministry'."⁶¹ For similar acts of witness the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation on Human Rights Day in 1986 gave awards to "Father Josef Baliarta Mangunwijaya [a lecturer at Gadjab Mada State University who lives with landless poor people] and village chief Willi Prasetya, a Catholic, who together led poor people living on the bank of Yogyakarta's Code River in a successful fight against relocation."⁶²

That same year, at a conference on the Vocation of the Laity in the Life and Mission of the Church in Oceania, Lucy Keino, a diocesan development education officer from Papua New Guinea with only a primary school education, described her responsibilities:

Of course, she knew that church educators have been murdered for carrying out these responsibilities.

In the Philippines Bert Cacayan describes the changes in his mother, a devout Filipino Catholic, which occurred in the 1970s when the Church "took to heart the teachings of Vatican II and popularized subsequent documents like Populorum, Justice in the World and other social documents":

He concludes: "The testimony and witness of persecuted Christians will deepen the Church's involvement in human rights . . ., will purify its proclamation of the liberating Gospel, and will make her a sacrament and an instrument for the realization of the 'new heaven and the new earth'."⁶⁵

Jack Clancey, of the Hong Kong Center for the Progress of Peoples, has written:

He has argued that as "human rights are necessary to help people live a more fully human life" and "Christ came to help all people live a fuller life . . . one role, or mission, of a Christian is to help people in their struggles to attain and protect their human rights."⁶⁷

In 1986 a pastoral letter of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan urged the government "to guarantee the people's freedom and rights as prescribed in the Constitution" and to respect "human rights and rectify past deficiencies in the verdicts of the civil courts by immediately setting free all prisoners of conscience, through due process of law."⁶⁸ Moreover, on 11 March 1987 eighty pastors, laity and students from the Taiwan (Presbyterian) Theological College protested the seizure of the Presbyterian Taiwan Church News, which was reporting a statement of the Taiwan Association for the Promotion of Human Rights.⁶⁹

Korean Cardinal Kim has long been outspoken in support of human rights. In 1986, at a mass celebrating human rights, he declared that "if the Government of South Korea continues to violate human rights, it has no competence to govern and it should resign."⁷⁰ In February of 1987 Cardinal Kim called "for nine days of nationwide prayer for human rights" to coincide with the Korean Independence Day and Ash Wednesday, and the forty-ninth day after the death of police torture victim Park Chung-chul, the day Buddhists believe his soul would leave the earth.⁷¹

In 1987 the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission at its annual meeting gave the Korean Bar Association's campaign against torture its full support and over $1,000 from the Christian Human Rights Memorial subcommittee.⁷² Catholics in Korea also support economic rights. In the words of Columban missionary Fr. Noel Mackey, who works in the slums of Seoul, "I think the Church should become involved in the three basic rights for people: right to eat, right to be clothed, and right to have a house."⁷³

Protestant churches in Korea have also been in the forefront of the human rights movement. The Sixty-ninth General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in South Korea protested the harassment of Rev. Park Hyung Kyu, minister of Chei Church in Seoul,⁷⁴ who wrote from his hospital bed that

That same year, members of the Korea Association of Accredited Theological Schools and the Korea Association of Christian Studies, who participated in the Centennial Theologians Conference, affirmed their "resistance against an ideology of totalitarian dictatorial powers that oppress human rights or dignity."⁷⁶

In 1986 the National Council of Churches in Korea formed the Pan-Christian Committee to Promote a Democratic Constitution, released the names of one thousand clergy who supported constitutional revision, and affirmed:

Furthermore, they asserted: "We devoutly believe that it is God's will for democracy to be established at this moment in our nation's history."⁷⁸ That same year Activity News, published by the National Council of Churches in Korea, reported under a regular section entitled "Human Rights News" the arrests, protests, and self-immolations of human rights advocates.⁷⁹

In 1969 the Sixth Annual Catholic Inter-American Cooperation Program (CICOP) Conference attempted to address the concern Paul VI expressed in his letter to the International Conference on Human Rights in Teheran in 1968, on the twentieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Among those at the conference addressing this question were Hector Borrat of Uruguay, Archbishop Helder Pessoa Camara of Brazil, Paulo Freire of Chile, Jorge Mejia, S.J. of Argentina, Luis Alberto Meyer of Paraguay, and René de León Scholotter of Guatemala. This conference represents the beginning of the Christian human rights movement in Latin America.

Carolyn Cook Dipboye provides a good summary of the church-state struggle "which dominated the decade separating the Latin American Episcopal Conference at Medellín in 1968 (CELAM II) and the conference at Puebla in 1979 (CELAM III).⁸¹ With Dom Helder Camara in the lead, the Brazilian hierarchy became "a massive force for advancing human rights."⁸² In 1973 the hierarchies in the central west, the northeast, and the northern areas of Brazil all published statements on human rights,⁸³ as the Brazilian Bishops Conference issued its own "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and initiated an ecumenical Campaign for Human Rights and Dignity.⁸⁴ And in 1974 the Brazilian hierarchy "adopted a worldwide plan" to disseminate information on human rights violations and ways to respond, which grew to include some fifteen hundred small groups all over the world.⁸⁵

The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in Chile also used episcopal declarations to resist human rights violations and supported the ecumenical Committee of Cooperation for Peace which processed some thirty thousand human rights appeals during its two years of operation. When because of pressure Cardinal Silva Henr¡quez dismantled the Committee, he replaced it with the Vicariate for Solidarity, which as "an indispensable disseminator of accurate information on the status of human rights in Chile" has assisted in the human rights protests of Amnesty International and the Organization of American States.⁸⁶

In Nicaragua in 1978 a letter from the Episcopal Conference calling upon Somoza to resign was endorsed by every major business organization in the country.⁸⁷ And the Priests' Council and the Board of Catholic Religious Orders sent a letter to President Carter two months before Somoza stepped down, asking for an end to aid because of the human rights violations of the regime.⁸⁸ In El Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero also asked for an end to U.S. aid and by 1980 was denouncing specific human rights violations every Sunday from the pulpit, until his assassination on March 24th.⁸⁹

The Roman Catholic Church has denounced retaliatory measures taken against it⁹⁰ "for raising its voice in support of human rights as an obvious infringement of its ministry."⁹¹ It asserts that: "The Church's defense of human rights is the completion of the preaching of the gospel, the concretizing of the good news of salvation."⁹² Thus many of the "basic Christian communities" created to evangelize the masses of the people of Latin America became involved not only in "meeting for biblical reflection," but also in "sharing common concerns and struggling for human rights and human dignity."⁹³

Writing in preparation for the third conference of bishops at Puebla, Ricardo Antoncich asserted that the violations of human rights, "which are so loudly denounced by world public opinion, cannot be ignored by the conscience of the Church in its reflections on faith."⁹⁴ He argued that the Brazilian bishops make clear that "Jesus Christ is the concrete model of respect for human rights," for in their "Pastoral Communication to the people of God" in 1976 they "point to concrete imitation of Jesus Christ as the way of promoting human rights" by asserting that "Christ was the great defender of human rights."⁹⁵

At Puebla in 1979 the denunciations of human rights violations contained in the first draft of the final document failed by eight votes to receive the necessary two-thirds approval; however, forty cardinals and bishops representing eleven Latin American countries later signed a letter of support denouncing the human rights abuses in Nicaragua and El Salvador and supporting the witness of the churches there.⁹⁶ Carolyn Cook Dipboye concludes: "Despite the weaknesses in the Final Document, Puebla did not represent a retreat from the Church's work for human rights."⁹⁷

Diego Irarrazaval, a Roman Catholic deacon in the Peruvian church, wrote after Puebla of a "pastoral ministry of human rights," suggesting "that the main elements of popular religiosity—prayer, the fiesta, the practice of believers—are integrated in the ministry of human rights, in a context of oppression where the poor are taking steps toward liberation."⁹⁸ As "prayer affirms the justice of God and, consequently, the rights of the poor," the "ministry of people's rights" is, "among other things, a ministry of prayer."⁹⁹ Just as in the Bible:

Irarrazaval argues that the Latin American church has a "long and rich tradition of defending and promoting people's rights.¹⁰¹ Moreover, he concludes: "the ministry of the rights of the people has to take place in all the life of the church," is rooted in "the religiosity of the oppressed and of those who struggle," and "encourages the evangelizing potential of the poor."¹⁰²

Julio de Santa Ana of Uruguay has suggested that the churches "are contributing to an understanding that human rights cannot be reduced to civil rights" but are basically the rights of peoples:

He believes that this "new element in the mission of the Church," which has been discovered in the Third World, should not be overlooked by churches in more affluent and secure societies.¹⁰⁴

Former Methodist Bolivian Bishop Mortimer Arias has written that "Human rights in Latin America is not just a matter for foreign policy; it is a matter of life and death, a matter of our confessing life":

Arias believes that in the churches' defense of life, "Human rights assumed the character of a status confessionis, the dividing line between what was Christian or un-Christian."¹⁰⁶ He notes that Christian organizations, often working with non-Christian groups, used "all non-violent means available" in this defense, including "Assemblies for Human Rights, Commissions for Justice and Peace, advocacy for prisoners of conscience, public denunciations and publications, low-profile intercessions with authorities, monitoring of 'missing persons,' legal assistance to the victims and their families, demonstrations, hunger strikes and fastings."¹⁰⁷

Bishop Helmut Frenz of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile was also imprisoned for his human rights advocacy. He affirms that "The Kingdom of God . . . begins where persons take the divine rights so seriously that they start to put them into practice as human rights."¹⁰⁸ Thus it became "clear in Chile that defending human rights and commitment to human dignity were an unabandonable part of the preaching of the Gospel."¹⁰⁹

The Latin American Protestant Commission on Christian Education (CELADEC) has developed since 1962 into a major ecumenical organization involving both Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders at regional, national and local levels in the struggle for human rights. By 1981 it had published over one hundred and seventy booklets, including a sixty page study entitled Human Rights: With Blood and Fire and a manual entitled Manual de Derechos Humanos, which explains how to file complaints about human rights violations with intergovernmental organizations and lists the nongovernmental organizations which can assist. This manual also presents all the relevant human rights texts of the UN, the ILO, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Finally, since 1976 the Human Rights Resources Office for Latin America of the World Council of Churches has worked with the Latin American Council of Churches and the Caribbean Conference of Churches to help victims of torture and police brutality and to support human rights education and action. In 1985 the Human Rights Resources Office for Latin America funded the publication of Nuncia Mais ("Never Again"), which presents seven years of research conducted by Sao Paulo's Roman Catholic archdiocese into the torture used by the Brazilian government. And in 1987 alone it channeled about $1.7 million to churches and church-related human rights groups in Latin America.¹¹⁰

One might well conclude then that the leadership of the human rights movement around the globe is in its churches, rather than in its law schools or political parties.¹¹¹ For the churches worldwide have made human rights a central part of their Christian witness in societies where brutal violations of human rights and the basic conditions of human dignity are tragically commonplace.

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