Rights and Responsibilities

Required Reading: See, Judge, Act (Chapter 8, Pgs. 183-203)

Always a good answer for a free response on a test, can be applied to everything
Can use quite a bit on final exam, can’t go wrong

Defining the Terms
Rights and Responsibilities - Two Pillars
- Human rights
  - “Grounded in human dignity” (187) - God given human rights
  - “Intrinsic and universal” (187)
    - Intrinsic - Part of us, cannot be taken away from us
    - Universal - Afforded to everyone
  - Unconditional
    - No matter what you’ve done or who you are, you have rights
- Responsibilities
  - “The social nature of the person” (Brigham, 185)
  - “The call to community and the common good” (187)
  - A duty or obligation to do something or not do something.
  - Things we do or do not do to protect the common good or our communities
Rights & Responsibilities are reciprocal
- “Rights are realized in the context of community” (Brigham, 187)
- Rights and freedoms are not absolute: the obligation to protect the common good may limit our rights
- Since Vatican II: a consistent emphasis on the relationship between human rights and responsibilities toward the (global) community.
Read only - Posted online
Rights and Responsibilities in Tradition
The USA Bill of Rights & Ensuing Responsibilities
- Rights of the 1st Amendment:
  - Freedom of religion…
  - Freedom of speech…
  - Freedom of the press…
  - Freedom of assembly to express grievances or aspirations for change
  - Freedom to petition the government to right wrongs
- Responsibilities:
  - Respect how others worship.
  - Be aware of the effects of my words.
  - But must print the truth.
  - Be cognizant of the reason of assembly and do so peacefully
  - Encourage the gov’t to be accountable and make necessary changes when deemed so.
Our Rights and Responsibilities (I like these encyclicals. We should have these in Minecraft if we need it.)
- Economic Justice for All (1986) describes a hierarchy of rights…
  - Basic rights necessary to protect human dignity.
  - Rights necessary to protect basic human rights.
  - Rights that enable full participation within the community.
- Exercising our rights means that we act with self-regulation and restraint: our rights are not absolute
- Our Responsibilities are
  - To inform ourselves on production
  - advocate workers both here and abroad
  - Make choices to buy products that protect the common good and ensure human rights for all.
A Place At The Table (PAT) - A Metaphor
- Recognizes the essential role & the complementary responsibilities of the different segments of society to
  - work together to alleviate poverty,
  - advance human dignity,
  - Organize wider participation in decision making
- First leg: individuals / families
- Second leg: local communities / churches / faith-based organizations
- Third leg: business and financial institutions that drive private sector
- Fourth leg: the government
- Collaborate to overcome challenges to justice that have emerged in the context of globalization.
- Think of one leg on a chair being shorter than others - that’s someone not fulfilling their responsibility
Globalization: Some definitions (read only) (all quotes taken from Ott/Netland, p. 14-34)
- We’ve become so deeply intertwined with each other yet we don’t recognize other communities as part of our community
- We’ve reaped the benefits of globalization but we don’t care for other communities as though they are our own
Globalization: A good or a bad thing? Read only - posted online