International baptist perspectives on human rights

Baptist History and Heritage, Spring, 2008 by Charles W. Deweese

What importance have the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and Baptist World Congresses assigned to human rights since the Alliance's first meeting in 1905? (1)

And what have Baptists on a global scale said about human rights through the BWA and its Congresses? This article will identify basic trends and illustrate those trends with specific examples.

Frankly, Baptists have done their share of discriminating against other races, depriving women of their rights, failing to help the poor, and engaging in other human rights injustices. However, there is another, more positive, side to the Baptist story; this article will feature that side.

Human Rights and the Baptist World Alliance

Four kinds of published resources, among other possibilities, demonstrate in indisputable fashion that the BWA has given major attention to human rights. First, the BWA coordinated nineteen Baptist World Congress meetings between 1905 and 2005. I have in my office a valuable collection of all nineteen published volumes containing the proceedings of those meetings. Recently, I examined all nineteen volumes to find out whether and how those meetings focused on human rights.

The nineteen volumes contain a wide array of major presentations on human rights presented in plenary sessions of Congresses and in Human Rights Commission meetings. In addition, they contain adopted resolutions, manifestos, and declarations on human rights. In more recent years, they also provide information about persons who have received BWA's Human Rights Awards.

Second, four published volumes contain the papers prepared by and for the Study and Research Division of the BWA in 1986-2005. (2) These volumes contain eighteen major papers presented by the Commission on Human Rights in 1986-2000 and by the Freedom and Justice Study Commission in 2000-2005. The presenters, including five women, came from thirteen countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Liberia, Norway, South Africa, and the United States. The implication is that Baptists worldwide both face and address human rights issues.

Third, the BWA Human Rights Commission published in 1997 a 35-page booklet titled Baptists and Human Rights written by James E. Wood, Jr., professor of church-state studies at Baylor University. Although Wood stated that "The concept of human rights cannot be claimed as a contribution of Baptists to the modern world," he did assert that "Baptist concern for human rights occupies a long and important place in Baptist international relations and in Baptist witness in international affairs." (3) Tony Cupit, director of the BWA Study and Research Division, stated in his introduction to the booklet his prayer that "all BWA member bodies will read the book with a desire to be deeply involved in issues of justice and human rights." (4)

Fourth, in 1999, James Leo Garrett, Jr., distinguished professor of theology emeritus at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, served as editor-in-chief of an 88-page book titled We Baptists: Study and Research Division, Baptist World Alliance. The six chapters reflected the work of the six BWA study commissions. Chapter 6, titled "Human Rights for All," noted that "the struggle for human rights has been part of shaping the Baptist vision"; defined the content of human rights as "individual rights, social rights, rights that show a special regard for developing countries, the rights of nature, and rights of future generations"; and indicated that Baptists should care about human rights both because of widespread violations and because of the strong basis for such rights in scripture, particularly the teachings of Christ. (5) The book made plain that the BWA actually implemented human rights initiatives by creating a Human Rights Commission, which met annually; by recommending that churches observe a Human Rights Sunday every December; by making annual human rights visits to areas of the world where Baptist churches and individuals lived in harsh situations; and by presenting a Human Rights Award every five years during a Baptist World Congress. (6) The published writings, resolutions, and declarations on human rights are extremely valuable for interpreting the global Baptist vision of Christianity for the past one hundred years, at least in the BWA. They help us know that some Baptists worldwide have cared about human rights. Today, we need to express deep gratitude for Baptists who verbally advocated human rights and have prophetically sacrificed themselves in defending such rights. At the same time, we need to recognize, as the book We Baptists put it, that "the greatest problem related to human rights is the universal reluctance and failure to implement them." (7)

Human Rights Emphases in 1905 and 1911

The first two Baptist World Congress meetings were held in London in 1905 and Philadelphia in 1911. They set the stage for future Congress discussions of human rights. In 1905, E. Y. Mullins, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, presented an address titled "The Theological Trend" in which he identified his axioms of religion that would find fuller expression in his 1908 book on such axioms. His fifth axiom read simply: "The social axiom: Love your neighbor as yourself. This makes the Kingdom of God the goal of the social movement." (8) During that same meeting, J. T. Forbes, of Scotland, and W. Buckingham, of Australia, respectively, presented papers titled "The Attitude of the Baptists to the Working Classes" and "Ethics in Business." (9)