Call to freedom

The evidence keeps growing that when we talk about "rights" we have to think in universal terms. We know about progress in Poland; we think about the Baltic nations' courageous actions in the face of their much larger neighbor; people know about, and now want changes that will protect, street children in places like Brazil; men and women in the United States are soul-searching over issues of mutual respect—people are responding to issues of basic rights on many levels.

Once a certain degree of moral or ethical awareness is achieved, it becomes clear that genuine rights can't really be "divvied up" the way we might have passed around marbles, trading cards, or candy when we were kids. True rights are indivisible; what's just for one can't be ignored for others. It's clearer, too, that the issue of rights is inseparable from the larger issue of love for one another. And, the next step may be that we begin to realize that the freedom all people yearn for has more than a personal, private source.

This kind of consciousness raising has something at its core which produces action and progress. This something is an understanding of God as ever-present, divine Principle, or Love. As we catch sight of this, a spiritual reformation begins to take place, in individuals, in families, in communities.

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