Panel on Religion and Human Rights

The Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee put on an excellent discussion this afternoon on religion and human rights. Among the questions raised, and answered only tentatively, were the following: Are human rights universal? How can we differentiate between beliefs about what human rights are and who deserves them -- beliefs that will be inevitably influened by religious world views -- and the human rights themselves? Are human rights located in individuals or in some sort of communities? (if they are to be located, we need to consider the linkages between religion and the building of communities) How can we live our claims about human rights?

They recommended almost as many books to us as questions. Here are the books whose titles I managed to write down:

Betrayal edited by Dartmouth professor Susanna Heschel
Gathering Storm by Morris Dees
Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer
God's Politics by Jim Wallis
A World Made New by Mary Ann Glendon