Editorial June 27, 1988 Issue

Human rights, our response

Michael D. Rissler

During a conference of public-school educators I sat at lunch with seven other people from various backgrounds. At our table alone, we came from eight cities in four countries. I soon realized, when we began to talk, that the mental picture I had of their homelands was really quite negative. It's not always easy to determine exactly how we've arrived at such images. Yet each one of these persons contradicted those impressions. They were extremely intelligent and dedicated, and people you would like to have for neighbors.

The wide divergence between the negative impressions I had and the actual character of these people caused a question to take shape: "How much excellence and goodness do we lose sight of when strife-torn images come to overshadow the view we have of our fellowman?" And more important, how much do we actually miss—cut ourselves off from—when we conceive of others separately from the intelligence, love, and integrity that are man's as the spiritual reflection of God?

We can't really know another person if we imagine anyone living apart from God, infinite good. Even the most cruel or brutal sinner must be seen as accountable and capable of responding to moral and spiritual law. Admittedly it may not always seem that this is true, but Christ Jesus must have understood it to be so. Not only did he trust to God's law those who were good to him; he also trusted Judas, Herod, and Pilate to divine justice. He sought to harm no one.

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