Human Dignity: Violations and Response!
Dr. Michel E. Abs
General Secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches
We do not need to delve deeply into social statistics in order to ascertain the extent of violations of people's dignity in all parts of the world.
It is enough for us to be aware of the number of arrests taking place among those who stand up and voice out their opinions as well as among those who demand their rights or the rights of others.
It is enough for us to explore, through the media, the destitute areas in rich and poor countries alike, in addition to the belts of misery that continue to characterize the societies of the modern world.
But what is hidden is greater still!
If we are able to see the obvious external manifestation of violations of human dignity, we are not able to probe the depths of the phenomenon in its hidden depth.
A destitute person who has been consumed by the hardships and difficulties of life forgets that there is a threshold that he should not cross and that no one should be allowed to force him to cross: it is the threshold of the boundary between humility, flexibility and long-suffering on the one hand, and human dignity on the other.
Those who allow the other person to humiliate their own dignity or expose it to humiliation err, as do those who cross their boundaries with the other and expose his dignity to prejudice.
No one can insult anyone except himself. One may insult only one’s own self.
The issue of dignity is linked to honor and to its concept, and at the same time to the concept of shame. He who does not know what shame is does not feel shame, and he who does not know what honor is does not feel shame. The matter is all about a life of humiliation!
Social life in the world, especially in our region, has deteriorated due to wars, conflicts and displacement coupled with the corruption of those in charge of public affairs. All this has taken place in an atmosphere of instigation, with incitement as well as with demonization of others and the establishing of feelings of fear among groups.
The standard of life in our Antiochene Levant has declined to the point where man accepts anything in return for securing the basic needs that are the right of every human being in the world. Deprivation has become so rampant in our societies that some people have forgotten that dignity equals life itself and that life without dignity is meaningless. This is how some established a kind of conspiracy, for which they recruited followers as well as established a pact with the enemy, in order to subjugate people, humiliate them and starve them to the point that they forgot their dignity. The end justifies the means. It is the worse period in history for our societies.
In addition, crises of all kinds have further dismantled social capital and turned the value system upside down. Ideals were lost, concepts became mixed up, and our societies entered the furnace of dissolution as a prelude to annihilation.
We in the Council of Christ’s Church, with what we represent and He Whom we represent, refuse to take the position of a neutral spectator to what is happening in our societies. We refuse to accept that we be another dumb devil added to groups of dumb demons, who see society disintegrating and its structures decomposing while we remain silent.
Since its inception, the Middle East Council of Churches has constituted a tool for socio-cultural change because of the values of civilization that we have gleaned from the biography and sermons of the Incarnate One who rebelled against annihilation.
To begin with His saying that he who says to his brother, “Oh, fool,” will not enter the kingdom of heaven, to His call to all who are weary and heavily burdened, not to forget His fairness, to the woman who had been charged with adultery, the Incarnate was the first precursor who defended human dignity. In other words, His Incarnation in itself is the protection of human dignity in its highest and deepest sense.
He who was subjected to ridicule, humiliation, slander, flogging and stabbing, laid down His divine dignity as a sacrifice for the dignity of humankind into which all must be born free and dignified and live with freedom and dignity.
The concept of human dignity, with the Incarnate rebelling against death, may be difficult for some to understand at times, as this type of understanding requires spiritual depth, dedication, and selflessness that only those who are firmly rooted in the life of the Spirit and who understand the Master’s messages can comprehend.
We in the Middle East Council of Churches, as we prepare to launch our project that focusses on human dignity, call upon all those concerned with the humanization of humankind to join us in order to help it preserve its inherent dignity, the pinnacle of its humanness, in the hope that it will have a better tomorrow.