16 days of activism: church has vital role to play
Churches, homes, workplaces and centres of learning are no longer safe havens for women and children.
Domestic violence is the most common widespread human rights abuse currently facing communities, including the Church.
Women victims’ rights are violated.
They are being deprived of their basic human rights, such as social and economic rights.
As a result they suffer physically, mentally, emotionally; and spiritually.
It is a great concern that little or nothing is being done by the Church for these women victims to help them deal with issues of domestic violence.
And not all denominations and congregations are engaged in programmes of liberating men from being abusers and perpetrators of violence against women and children.
When I talk about denominations and congregations I am not referring to individual church leaders.
There is a lack of respect for life and respect for one another. This lack of respect leads to cruelty and immoral acts towards each other, and towards women in particular.
The church, together with civil society, must find ways of restoring respect for life in our homes and societies.
Respect for life must not just be a slogan or a programme.
It must be seen as a fundamental moral principle, arising from the church’s teachings on the dignity of the human person. It must be understood as an approach to life that values people over things.
Respect for life must guide the choices we make as individuals and as a society.
Respect for human life should be the starting point for confronting the culture of violence against women and children.
Most men address their family problems by being abusive towards their wives, partners and children. Young and elderly men must be taught that violence is not a quick and easy answer to complex human problems.
Violence is not the solution. It is the clearest sign that we as men are failures if we are violent towards our partners and women. It demonstrates that we have lost our respect for human life and our self-respect as men who are supposed to play the role of protecting and providing for our families.
The question is how we can teach young boys and girls to curb their violence, while adults embrace it as the solution to their family and social problems.
We need to learn to affirm and protect life. A fundamental ethic of respect for life should be central for all.
What this says to us as the church and to individual Christians is that we cannot be silent while someone else’s rights are being violated. What we need to do is to protect the rights and the dignity
Theologically, human rights have to do with the realisation that all people are created in the image of God, enjoying equal of all human beings. human worth. Scholars within theological circles argue that the church’s primary task is clearly to facilitate Christians to promote and appropriate the values of a human rights culture.
As churches together with other stakeholders in our societies, we need to develop consciousness of human rights, because they are so important in that they are strong factors in peace-making. Most conflicts arise from a violation of human rights.
The acceptance of these rights is not sufficient. There is a need to have determined action to make human rights a reality in our homes and societies. It should not be the responsibility alone of government and civil society, but rather a responsibility for every citizen.
Churches have a responsibility to educate their members on this positive correlation and to be proponents of both moral responsibility and human rights in the ecumenical fellowship of churches and society at large.
Education about human rights should be one of the weapons used to restore human dignity. Schools and churches have the responsibility to ed- ucate the next generation on human rights. It is not enough to do this alone. Also required is an indication of the basic values embedded in the list of human rights. Although curricula have human rights as the topic of a unit of class work, generally this is taught only at the cognitive level. Such academic learning has little impact on actual behaviour. It is merely about memorising the articles in the convention on human rights and this knowledge does not go far. What is necessary is to help learning about human rights in a manner that the respect for human dignity is internalised and becomes a part of one’s character. As the church we need to search for effective methods of teaching human rights at schools and in our homes.
Violence against women and children is a spiritual problem and the church cannot be silent about this challenge. Hence there is a need for the church to act on this violation of human rights. The church is and will always be charged with the responsibility of curing the soul.
Respect for life must not just be a slogan. It must be a fundamental moral principle