Vela Ventures

Human Rights

In today’s world here is much discussion and expansion of “human rights”.  A starting point is the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ proclaimed by the United Nations December 10, 1948.  It declares that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.  It defines these rights in 30 articles list in the document today.  These rights are consistent with Christian values. 

The American Declaration of Independence also explicitly states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

The Catholic Church in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1700) states “The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God”. 

The rights of human beings as defined above by the United Nations are intrinsically reliant on a benign Creator.  In this they have a firm basis, not subject to the current whims.

Historically, human rights have been defined by Mother Nature -“might is right’.  The strong rule and others do as they are told.  This is the pattern of previous empires and persists today in various dictatorships. 

The modern secular world wants to dismiss the Creator.  But in doing so they destroy the firm basis of all human rights.  Human rights then become whatever the powers that be agree to.  Thus, they can be quite fluid and fit the whims of a dictator who wants to make his/her state supreme.  Nazi Germany and Communist Russia are recent examples.

There is an emphasis today on the LBGTQ+ community.  Mother Nature’s approach to this community is to remove these genes from the gene pool.  However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2358) states - “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible ".  They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.  Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided”.  This agrees with the current secular world. 

The confusion about the Gay Community comes from the general use of the word homosexual.  The secular use of the word is often synonymous with sexual relations.  The Catholic Church refers to homosexuals as people with a same sex attraction. The Catholic Church calls homosexuals to chastity – the same as heterosexuals. There is no free pass for homosexuals.  The Catholic Church calls for conjugal love within a permanent marriage context open to the creation of new life.  There is much in human psychology and public health concerns to indicate that this is a excellent idea.

The Catholic Church opposes abortion because it believes that the unborn baby is a human being.  This is a position consistent with biology.  This human being is deserving of respect.  This appears as a choice between “The Right to Life” vs “The Right to Choose”.  Many pro-abortion people find themselves in the ridiculous position of being pro-abortion and anti-capital punishment (kill the innocent and spare the guilty), The Catholic Church opposes both – a consistent position.

Your comments are welcome John.Clark@VelaVentures.com