CHRISTIANITY, MULTICULTURALISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Augusto Zimmermann

Although the current human rights movement is 'faithfully' committed to the idea of cultural relativism, it is always important to remember that the origin of human rights is God's creation. Human beings have never 'acquired' their basic rights, nor has any government conferred such rights to them. As John Stott put it: "We have had them from the beginning. We received them with our life from the hand of our Maker. They are inherent in our creation. They have been bestowed on us by our Creator".(1) According to Genesis 1:27-8, God created human beings in His own image and commanded them to fill the earth and subdue it. Therefore, we found here a very special meaning for human rights, since there is an intimate relationship between God and individuals. This relationship reflects the meaning of our humanness, as a relationship that the Fall has distorted but did not destroy.

The relativistic concept of multiculturalism cannot establish the same moral compass of Christianity. To the contrary, 'blind faith' in cultural relativism tends to make patterns of social behaviour too much depending on circumstances of culture. Therefore, a basic reason for the growth of corruption, violence, and pornography in the West may be found in the denial of Christian culture and religion. Christianity is indeed the moral force that holds social values together in the West. On the other hand, as Rex M. Rogers noted, relativism of culture and morality has produced "social degradation, then debilitation, then disintegration, and ultimately destruction. Individuals who reject God and embrace 'morality-as-a-choice' follow a similar path: uncertainty, then anxiety, then loss of hope, then despair, then alienation, then cynicism, then rage".(2)

The great irony of multiculturalism is that its apparently tolerant assumptions are regularly applied with a greater degree of severity and intolerance against anyone who dares to defend the Christian heritage of Western societies. As Ravi Zacharias puts it, the Christian faith has become in the West "free game for ridicule and analysis by social critics and is afforded no protection from hate and hostility by the so-called multicultural society".(3) Of course, it also shows that what multiculturalists really want is to replace Western culture and religion by 'alternative codes' of social conduct that are much more intrusive and repressive than the former ones. According to Gertrude Himmelfarb, these new codes of social conduct "are based not on familiar, accepted principles [of the Judeo-Christian cultural and religious tradition], but on new and recondite ones, as if designed for another culture or tribe".(4)

To conclude, multiculturalism is a form of political correctness that defrocks the West of moral absolutes. It simply cannot provide ultimate standards of truth, or basic rules of right and wrong to guide moral behaviour, for everything may be eventually relativized in terms of the cultural context of individuals. In the first century, St. Peter wrote about destructive heresies elaborated by false teachers against God. There are many of them in our present days, working very hard in schools and universities for the destruction of Western culture and religion. As one might say, these false teachers are "creatures of instinct" that promise more freedom but enslave individuals in sin and corruption. Their conscience and natural reason are "distorted beyond recognition by the false teachings and traditions of men".(5) Confucius once said: "where art overrides nature, you get the pedantry of a scribe".(6) If so, there is no mistake in considering miseducation much worse than no education.

(1) Stott, John; New Issues Facing Christians Today. London: Harper Collins, 1999, p.172.

(2) Rogers, Rex M.; Christian Liberty: Living for God in a Changing Culture. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003, p.169.

(3) Zacharias, Ravi; Deliver us from Evil: Restoring the Soul in a Desintegrating Culture. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1996, p.244.

(4) Himmelfarb, Gertrude; The De-moralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values. New York: Random House, 1996, p.261.

(5) Wu, John C.H.; Fountain of Justice: A Study in the Natural Law. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1955, p.182.

Augusto Zimmerman, LL.B. LL.M. is a Brazilian Law Professor and Ph.D candidate, Faculty of Law, Monash University