The Bible's Impact on Human Rights

“Intellectual honesty demands recognition of the fact that what passes as ‘secular,’ ‘Western’ principles of basic human rights developed nowhere else than out of key strands of the biblically rooted religions.” Max Stackhouse, professor and director of the Kuyper Center for Public Theology at Princeton

In ancient Greece, the birthplace of democracy, men were viewed as having rights, while women and children and non-Greeks were viewed primarily as property.

"It is in Christianity and, more specifically, in the Bible that we find the source of universal human rights. All humans are created in the image of God—this is the abolitionists’ argument for the dissolution of slavery. All women are created in the image of God—this is the argument of women’s rights advocates for equal pay and voting rights. Children are created in the image of God—this is the argument against child labor. For pro-life advocates, this truth extends even into the womb, as they argue that every fetus is a human being, an image bearer in utero, and therefore is deserving of freedom and life." Lauren Green McAfee and Michael McAfee

Martin Luther King wrote, “How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. ... An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian who was executed by the Nazis for his part in an assassination plot against Adolf Hitler, wrote extensively about Christian freedom, Christian engagement on the world stage, and the importance of a free exchange of ideas. He wrote, “The essential freedom of the church is not a gift of the world to the church but the freedom of the Word of God to make itself heard.” 

"What he is saying here is that the Bible has its own authority and its own freedom. The truth found in the Bible needs only to stand and be presented. Faith is not faith when it is forced on you; that’s coercion." Lauren Green McAfee and Michael McAfee 

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