What does God want? Do you think that God wants humanity to annihilate itself and all other creatures on Earth? What is God’s expectation of us?
Of course, these questions are difficult to answer. Perhaps even unanswerable. It’s possible that God does not exist — it’s impossible to prove that God exists; it’s also impossible to prove that God does not exist.
It’s a choice. For many, including me, an important choice. I choose to believe in God.
At the same time, I don’t begrudge anyone who does not believe in God. It’s their choice. Our choices are both the stronger if made without judgment or coercion.
The same is true with the relationship with God, if one choses to have one: The strongest bond with God is voluntary.
Unite for Rights does not support any political party, nor is it a part of any political party; and so it is with religion. Unite for Rights does not support any religion, nor is it a part of any religion. It supports the independent choice of every person to make these choices for themselves.
Similarly, an International Bill of Rights does not create a religion, either state or personal. It empowers each person to make their own choice with respect to God and religion and not be coerced by others, or governments, to make particular choices.
The interesting thing, whether it is inspired by God, or personal reflection, is that the ability to make individual choices can lead to reciprocal well-being. While making our independent choices we may come to realize what we have in common.
Gandhi teaches us this. When Eleanor Roosevelt was the Chair of the Human Rights Commission drafting an International Bill of Rights, she asked Gandhi to determine whether freedom of religion was a human right that should be included in the UDHR.
Gandhi studied the question and decided freedom of religion should be included. He wrote to Eleanor “I thought that the deeper I went, the more disparity I would find. Instead, I found that the deeper I went the more there was in common.”
This insight is the heart of the drafting through dialogue process used by Unite for Rights: by digging deeper, we may find that the deeper we go the more there is in common. At least enough to agree to an International Bill of Rights protecting some fundamental rights for all people in all countries.
Participation is the key to finding what we have in common. This is why the spinning globe on the Unite for Rights site, and your signing to become a light for rights and a “Uniter”, is the most important part of Unite for Rights. It’s a small, but significant, expression of a willingness to dig deeper.
What is needed is for religions to dig deeper together too. As with governments, it’s often needed for the lay people to lead. Every mosk, synagogue, and church, or any other place of religious gathering, or organization, is welcome to be a green light on the globe.
Remember, becoming a green light, or any other color, on the globe is not an indication of support for particular wording in an International Bill of Rights: it is a sign of support to engage in a dialogue about what rights should be included.
So first, become a light yourself; then ask others to join as purple light as well. Then, if you choose to participate in religion, present the possibility for your local, or international, organization to become a green light as well. Religion can help us unite to find what we have in common.
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