WUNRN
Presentation of Fr. Boulos Wehbe
Lebanon
Christian Religious Leader Representative
Orthodox Archdiocese of Beirut,
Lebanon/ Notre Dame University (NDU)
KNINFO
- WUNRN – ABAAD
LEBANON
RELIGIOUS LEADERS & CIVIL SOCIETY
JOIN TO ADDRESS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN & GIRLS
UN
Human Rights council Session 26 – Panel
June
17, 2014
11:00am
– 12:30 pm
Palais
des Nations – Room XXIV
Geneva, Switzerland
It is necessary to start by affirming 2 unwavering principles in relation to the topic which we have come to deal with:
1- That Christianity is absolutely against violence and that it opposes it in any form and for whatever reason or motive for all human beings,
and,
2- That it believes and teaches that all women, men, children – of whatever age or religion they are, are equal in the sight of God and that they have the same dignity thereof.
Christianity teaches that God is the creator of all, and that Jesus Christ, by dying on the cross and having been raised from the dead, became the Savior of the world - the Savior of mankind and not only of Christians. If one reads the way Christ dealt with people in the 4 Gospels, and how His disciples translated that in the other writings of the New Testament, one can sense that all people were and are engulfed with His love. The early Church lived this and spread it, and the lives of the saints and the pious throughout have been a continually a living testimony of and to this.
Furthermore, Jesus was opposed to violence in the absolute sense; a reading of the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in the Gospel according to St. Mathew, chapters 5-7, attest to this. So do the many references to love, especially in the Gospel according to St. John and in his first letter, as well in the ode to love of St. Paul in his First letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13. The cry of Christ on the cross to His Heavenly father regarding His crucifiers is the greatest affirmation to this: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34.) One can sight countless references to this throughout the writings of the New Testament.
As such, it is redundant to accord any extenuating circumstances to any act of violence that falls on any human being, again of any age, sex, religion or otherwise. No justification can be given to exercising violence, against any human being. And while it may be true that the history of Christianity and of the Church had witnessed recourse to violence by its proposed adherents, and while it is equally true that many Christians had (and have) justified violence (collectively or individually,) or that many spiritual courts have been complacent or partially lax in condoning or condemning violence (in our country civil status matters are dealt with by tribunals which fall under the auspices of the religious denominations,) this does not diminish the absoluteness of this unwavering admonition. If the Crusades were a dark segment of the Middle Ages, or if in many parts of the world so-called Christians have had recourse or a justification of violence, we have to be brave and candid enough to say that these interludes do not define what Christ and Christianity adopt.
I have to say here that in many cases, whether in my country or elsewhere, where laxity or complacency took place, the recourse to violence was done within a dominantly patriarchal framework, where the male resorted to it because patriarchal culture allowed or promoted it, and thus it is unfortunate to say that a male bias interfered in the interpretation of religion - in this case Christianity but of course this applies to others, for the ‘advantage’ of the male against the interest and full dignity of the female. This also applies to children, who suffer from this patriarchal bias and pay a dire price within its framework.
Therefore, I allow myself to proclaim, as I understand my faith and the teachings of my Church to be, the unequivocal opposition to violence, especially against women and girls - and children at large. I proclaim that because this violence is first and foremost a condemner of those who practice it and of the culture and society which promotes or is complacent regarding it. We have a saying in Arabic which goes that “the person who is silent when it comes to what is right is a mute devil.” Not speaking out against violence promotes it, and encourages those who practice it to keep on doing so. We need to proclaim and explain this through whatever venue we can. We need to encourage and teach women and children to come out and speak, as well as their parents and milieu. The laws which still have loop-holes in relation to punishing and condemning the offenders have to be remedied. The mark of the progress of any society is the way it deals with the oppressed. Furthermore, aren’t the women and children suffering from violence themselves mothers and offspring of the families they are related to? Do those promosting violence against them view them as such?
I further proclaim that what is considered to be violent are not only the physical acts of it, but the way women and children (especially girls) are looked at and upon; that violence is an attitude that may come out verbally or in treatment, or in the deprivation of the natural rights of these women and girls. A male child, kid, teenager or adult has the same rights - whether male or female. No one is superior to the other, and no one can have the upper hand to dominate the others. This does not allow room for interpretation in the absolute sense.
If human dignity signifies this, and if my Christian faith is very clear regarding this, how is it possible to be hesitant, complacent, lax, or silent when it comes to this violence, and for that matter towards any act of violence? As for those who raise flimsy cultural and societal factors to cloud this with the obscurity of haziness, I stand out and say aloud that this issue is un-negotiable.
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