A Mandate for Human Rights Activism

Benedict Rogers (upcoming Academy Scholar in Residence)

Benedict Rogers is a writer and human rights activist, working with Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He is the author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma’s Karen People (Monarch, 2004) and co-author with Joseph D’souza of On the Side of the Angels: Justice, Human Rights, and Kingdom Mission (Authentic, 2007). He has travelled 24 times to Burma and its borderlands, and also works on Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He has lived in Hong Kong, China, East Timor and Washington, DC, and is now based in London.

He had seen his father shot dead in front of him, as they worked together in their rice paddy. He waited until the Burma Army soldiers had gone, and then brought his father’s body back for burial. A few days later, the Burma Army struck again, this time killing most of the villagers, including his mother.

The soldiers raped and looted, and burned down the whole village. Then they took him as a forced porter. For three days, he was forced to walk very long distances carrying very heavy loads, and was denied food and water. He collapsed from exhaustion, and was beaten unconscious. When he woke up, he found the soldiers had moved on and he made his escape. I met him in a village of internally displaced people in Shan State, eastern Burma, after walking for eight hours through the jungle, up and down mountains and across rivers, having crossed illegally into Burma from Thailand. As he told his story, this 15 year-old Shan boy looked into my eyes and said words I shall never forget: “Please tell the world to put pressure on the military regime to stop killing its people. Please tell the world not to forget us.”

Those words provide a contemporary translation of Proverbs 31: 8-9 – “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves”. It is a biblical mandate to be a voice for the voiceless, to place the fight for justice and freedom at the centre of our kingdom mission – yet too often in too many parts of the Church, that aspect of mission is low on the priority list, ignored or even, sometimes, dismissed completely. Too often, mission is seen in narrow terms as evangelism, and is measured in statistics – the number of people “saved”. Yet mission is about building the Kingdom – and human rights activism is a core element.

The biblical mandate is clear, and I could devote this entire article simply to quoting Scripture. I shall, however, simply refer to one – Isaiah 58: 6-12. The type of fasting that we should choose is to loosen the chains of injustice, and set the oppressed free.

In addition to the biblical mandate, Christians should be at the frontlines of human rights campaigning because we are all made in the image of God. Therefore any act of injustice, persecution, oppression or violence, any failure to respect the dignity of each and every human being, mars the image of God in us.

And that goes for all aspects of justice. Although I work for an organisation that specialises in religious freedom, and has a core focus on the persecuted Church, our biblical mandate is to speak for justice for all. In Christian Solidarity Worldwide, we campaign for religious freedom for all, and often our work extends into wider human rights issues where violations of religious freedom and other freedoms intersect.

As Christians, it is absolutely right that we stand in solidarity with our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ, because if we don’t who will? In 1 Corinthians 12:26 we are told, with reference to the body of Christ, that “if one part suffers, every part suffers with it” and in Galatians 6:10 Paul tells us “as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers”. It is estimated that over 200 million Christians in more than 60 countries around the world face discrimination, restrictions and persecution of one form or another – and we need to pray and protest on their behalf. But our mandate for justice does not end there – in fact, it is only the beginning.

We should speak up for human rights for all primarily because it is morally and biblically right to do so. When I meet a Chin Christian woman and a Shan Buddhist woman in Burma, both of whom have been brutally gang-raped by the Burma Army, I don’t distinguish between them. Their suffering is of equal concern to me, and the violation both have endured causes me equal outrage. And so when thinking about why we speak up on human rights, we need to be clear about our motivation – which must come from pure biblical and moral foundations. We speak up for others because it is right to do so.

Nevertheless, there are also clear strategic reasons for standing with all the oppressed, not only Christians. Firstly, the Church can never exist in isolation. We are in the world, though not of the world. So, if we are to truly serve the persecuted Church, our approach must be holistic. Change for our persecuted brothers and sisters will, in most countries, only come with change for everyone. Religious freedom for Christians cannot be divorced from freedom for all.

Secondly, if we speak up for others, it is more likely that they will stand up when Christians are persecuted. I have been working with the Rohingya people in Burma, a Muslim people group who are among the most oppressed. When I published a report in 2007 on the persecution of Christians in Burma, Carrying the Cross: The military regime’s campaign of restriction, discrimination and persecution against Christians in Burma, the Rohingya Muslims issued a statement of support. Earlier this year, I visited the Rohingya refugees on the Bangladesh-Burma border, and saw the dire conditions in which they are living – and published a report which documented their suffering.

Thirdly, in the case of some religious groups, particularly Muslims, if we fail to reach out to them when they are persecuted, they may turn to radical Islamism. Promoting human rights and freedom for all is an important weapon in the war against extremism.

And lastly, are we not filled with the love of Christ? While we should never ever use human rights activism for the purposes of evangelism, is it not more likely that we will gain opportunities to share Christ’s message with others by standing with and reaching out to them, than turning our backs and focusing solely on our own kind? My good friend Joseph D’souza, President of the All India Christian Council, led the response to the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. The All Indian Christian Council was among the first to come to Gujarat to document the carnage, set up camps for the displaced, provide shelter and food and cry out on behalf of the victims. They did this unconditionally and without publicity. As a result, throughout India the All India Christian Council received invitations to speak to large gatherings of Muslims – sometimes as many as 75,000 people – and invariably the topic they were invited to address was: “Why did you help us? What does the Bible have to say about human rights and justice?”

It is time, therefore, for every Christian who is blessed with freedom to ask themselves how we can use our freedom on behalf of those who are denied it. It is time to see mission as not simply the business of conversion, but the expansion of Kingdom values – at the heart of which are surely justice and human rights. In Christian Solidarity Worldwide, our motto is “pray, protest and provide”. Every Christian in the free world can do all three. Christians should be at the forefront of human rights activism, and reclaim human rights as part of Kingdom mission.

For more information about CSW visit www.csw.org.uk and for specific involvement in Burma see CSW’s new ChangeforBurma! Campaign at www.changeforburma.org.

0 Responses • Features, Guest Speakers, Fri 05 Dec 2008