Dear Readers,
Yet again, I have posted one of my assignments for my Christian Morality class. This time, I discuss human dignity and justice. Once again, it is short, but I hope it makes sense and that at least some of you like it. I hope I don't sound like I'm trying to be too C.S. Lewis-ish. I was reading one of his books today and kind of got wrapped up in his writing style. But anyway, Read and review, please. Thanks.
Best regards from a Bookworm,
Miss Pookamonga ;-P
On Human Dignity and Justice
The Webster's New World Dictionary defines dignity as "1. honorable quality; worthiness; 2. high repute or honor, or the degree of this; 3. a high position, rank or title; 4. stately appearance or manner; 5. self-respect." The dictionary, as with many other terms, grasps the basic definition of dignity—at least what dignity is defined to be at surface level—but it fails to convey the full meaning of the word. Each definition, however, can be combined together to create a much better picture of dignity as it really should be. Human dignity, indeed, is worthiness—it is what makes each individual human life respectable and beautiful, for it is a God-given gift. Therefore, if we possess this worthiness divinely bestowed upon each of us, we, as humans, are raised to a higher place in life than we would be if we were mere animals. Our dignity, our worthiness from God is what connects us to Him and to His creatures, thus placing us in a position in which we are truly blessed beyond measure. It is in this state of being in this position that we come to realize God's love and respect for each of His children and challenge ourselves to be like Him by respecting our fellow brothers and sisters and showing others to do the same. Also, we learn that our dignity makes us who we are, and thus we learn to respect ourselves, especially our souls, because of it.
With human dignity comes great responsibility, however. We may understand that each of us possess this spiritual quality which is altogether unexplainable yet defines who each one of us is. Yet we may not always pay attention to this understanding. This is evident in society today; we see many things daily that violate human dignity : genocide in Darfur, murders of innocent Iraqi families, euthanasia of disabled newborns in England, racism against Muslims, rapes of young girls, and even the simplest acts of bullying in schools. Anything that hurts another person in some way or another is a violation of his or her human dignity, and is therefore unjust. Injustice in the world is caused by our all-too-often neglect of respect for each other's and our own human dignity. If we all respected that we were made in the "image and likeness of God" and are therefore blessed and sacred, perhaps there would not be so much human conflict. But the powers of Satan never cease to blind us and lead us down the path toward treating our brothers and sisters in Christ as nothing but insects doomed to be squashed beneath our stampeding feet.
But hope for justice still abounds on this earth, for there are many people who see and have seen what a truly great gift human dignity is and respect it to the utmost degree. There are our relatives and friends, who hug and kiss us and tell us that we're wonderful just because they love us. There are little children, whose strong trust in us "grown-ups" and "big kids" shows us that we don't need to put on a show for people in order to be someone's hero. There are people like Mr. Rogers, who spent a half hour on television every day to tell children that they were just as important as adults. There are saints like Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, who never stopped at caring for and defending the poorest of the poor, even at the risk of their own lives. There are our teachers, who expect us to do more than we ever imagined we could, because they know that we can try that much harder to succeed. These examples are only a few that demonstrate human dignity being respected, yet it is these few that pave the way for us to open our eyes to see others as God does.