For All Peoples and All Nations: The Ecumenical Church and Human Rights

This is the remarkable story of the early human rights movement, and of the influence of Christianity and the Christian churches on envisioning a post-WWII framework for international justice that ultimately resulted in the passing of the 1948 U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. In sum: When Hitler and Stalin were on the prowl, several ecumenical church leaders in the U.S. and Europe saw that not only must they be stopped by the use of military force, but that a non-territorial and non-coercive interpretation of Christian concern for justice and the welfare of the neighbor could help shape a new global order after the war. These church leaders, led by Frederick Nolde and Searle Bates, translated the deep insights of the Christian tradition into terms that could be endorsed on inter-faith, cross-cultural, and international bases. These leaders supplied the intellectual firepower and the zeal for the cause that tirelessly prodded the heads of states and leaders of diplomatic corps to think about the formation of institutions that could most likely prevent the barbarism of Fascism and Communism from terrorizing the post-war future. Supported by the World Council of Churches, they drafted the basic designs behind the most important institutions of today's system of international law--including the 1948 U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. The rest, as they say, is history. Social action inspired by Christian convictions has a mixed record in the modern world. Here is a case in which progressive stalwarts in the church, by articulating enduring theological principles that recognize the human dignity of each and every human being, got it right.