Freedom of the Spirit

2 Corinthians 3:17 - "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

Freedom of religion is at the heart of what today are described as fundamental human rights. The right to worship and to act on certain religious beliefs, without interference by the government, is deeply rooted in Western culture and has been accepted throughout the world as an essential social condition for human dignity.

This right reflects the notion that the Spirit of God moves within our lives in strange and mysterious ways. In response to this strange work of the Spirit, we are drawn toward different practices and beliefs. One of the great facts of religion is the diversity of expression and practice, not only between different traditions but also within any tradition.

Thus, the protection of freedom of religion is the legal recognition of an important spiritual fact: we receive and perceive the Spirit of truth in diverse ways. For some, God is the name that represents the fundamental truths of life. For others, Buddha points the way, and for many there is no one name that guides us to the truth. This is not to say, of course, that everyone's perception is equally true, for such a relativistic position reduces truth to mere opinion. But we must acknowledge that religious diversity is a fact, which deserves legal protection as well as spiritual recognition. Our challenge, in the face of such diversity, is to discern and to do what is true and right.

International Human Rights Law

International human rights law is an attempt to state, as well as protect, the essential social conditions for human dignity. It is a modern language about the true and the right. It affords protection for diverse religious and cultural practices, but it also clearly affirms the human dignity of all persons and declares degrading and discriminatory treatment of any person to be contrary to human dignity.

For instance, not only is religious freedom affirmed under international law, but the equal rights of women and men are also asserted, even as slavery and torture is condemned. In addition, the civil and political rights of freedom of speech and assembly are balanced by the social and economic rights to work, health care, and social security. The vision of international human rights law is of a community of communities, a world community which recognizes the diversity of cultures and traditions but which also protects the fundamental human dignity of each person.

International human rights law came out of the development of the United Nations after World War II. The Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe showed clearly that state laws could be manipulated to justify the greatest of atrocities. Some global standard of morality and law was needed to judge such practices, and so in 1948 the new United Nations passed without dissenting vote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the next twenty years this declaration was implemented by major treaties among the member states of the United Nations. Now there is a clear body of international law defining fundamental human rights. And today no nation can claim with any legal justification that it has the right to do with its citizens as it likes, as a matter of its domestic affairs. Today each citizen of the world can assert that she or he has human rights, which transcend the authority of every government.

Of course, there are many problems in enforcing human rights, as there is no coercive world state to do so. However, one can see this fact in a very positive way, rather than as a weakness. International law is an experiment in non-violent action. Its procedures and reporting mechanisms constitute a moral process, which seeks to reinforce good conduct among states and to shame those who engage in inhumane behavior. It recognizes the force of evil in the world, but it is fundamentally a positive response, which assumes that human beings are capable of doing what is true and right.

Religious Challenge

One can see support for fundamental human rights, in theological terms, as the work of the same Spirit that "blows where it wills." (John 3:8) This Spirit of truth, which may touch the heart of any woman or man, has helped us to see that the fundamental human rights of each woman and man deserve to be protected. The recognition of the diversity among us, in this sense, requires also the recognition of that which we have in common. We all are children of one heaven and one earth, however we may conceive that process. We are all members of one human family and of the earth community that we share with all sentient beings.

As a healthy diet requires a variety of foods, but also means avoiding unhealthy food, so a healthy earth community requires a variety of cultures and religious practices but also means rejecting religious activities which deny the fundamental human rights necessary for human dignity. We are all called to respect one another's beliefs and traditions, yet we must engage each other in order to understand how our religious practice can be deepened and reformed so that it will contribute to the life and health of all creation.

Human rights law helps us in this respect, but it only provides minimum standards. It is better at defining what is not permitted, than in encouraging us to work for the kind of community we seek. Thus, we must renew our religious life and extend the visions of our traditions into our modern context, if we would find the inspiration to create and protect the earth community, as a home for all its creatures. That is, we must now find our freedom in the Spirit of truth, and not just in the right to express and act upon our individual opinions.

The challenge to become an earth community is the greatest challenge humankind has every faced. However, it is a challenge for which all of history has prepared us. We need not fear the future, but should embrace our historic moment with conviction and courage. This is the time to be faithful, this is the time to renew our dedication to fundamental human rights, this is the time to embrace the freedom that comes with living in the Spirit.

17 May 1992

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1 in Faith: A Christian Bible Study † Copyright © 2000 by Robert Traer