Rights and Responsibilities

Rights and Responsibilities

1. Keywords

   • BIBLE: the holy book of Christians
   • CHURCH: the community of christians (with a small c it means a Christian place of worship)
   • CONSCIENCE: an inner feeling of the rightness of wrongness of an action
   • THE DECALOGUE: the ten commandments
   • DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES: the ways in which all citizens can take part in government (usually through elections)
   • ELECTROAL PROCESSES: the ways in which voting is organised
   • THE GOLDEN RULE: the teaching of Jesus that you should treat others as you wish to be treated
   • HUMAN RIGHTS: the rights and freedoms to which everyone is entitled
   • POLITICAL PARTY: a group which tries to be elected into power on the basis od its policies, e.g Labour or conservative
   • PRESSURE GROUP: a group formed to influence government policy on a particular issue
   • SITUATION ETHICS: the idea that Christians should base moral decisions on what is the most loving thing to do
   • SOCIAL CHANGE: the way in which society has changed and is changing (and also the possibilities for future change)

2. The bible as the basis of making moral decisions

   • Christians believe the bible is the word of God and so is God's guidance to human about how to make decisions
   • The bible contains Gods teachings on how Christians should behave. The decalogue, for example, gives clear guidance on such things like the treatment of parents, adultery and murder
   • The bible contains the teachings of Jesus on how to live. As Christians believe jESUS IS THE SON OF od, they should follow his teachings about moral decision making
   • The bible contains letters from leading disciples of Jesus about how Christians should behave. Christians believe the writers of the letters knew Jesus and were guided and were guided by the holy spirit so their guidance must be important.

3. The Authority of the church as a basis of making moral decisions

   • They believe the church is the body of Christ - Jesus working in todays world - so it must have the same authority as Christ
   • Most Christians believe that God speaks to the world today through the church
   • The Church is guided by God in making decisions on todays moral issues
   • Following the guidance of the church stops christians from becoming confused abut what to do and means Christians can be sure they are doing the right thing
   • Catholic Christians believe that the magisterium gives perfect guidance on oral behaviour

4. The role of the conscience as a guide in making moral decisions

   • Why some Christians believe you should...
     • They believe that the voce of the conscience seems to be the same as the voice of God, so Christians should follow it
     • The Church says that Christians should follow their conscience as if it were the voice of God
     • St Paul and st Thomas Aquinas taught that christians should use their conscience as the final part of moral decision making
     • The bible often needs to be interpreted, the teachings of the church come through the pope but conscience is god speaking directly t individuals and so should be followed
   • Why some christians believe you should not...
     • People have heard the voice of god telling them to do bad things. If people can be mistaken by the voice of god, they could be mistaken about the voice of conscience
     • If Christians follow the teachings of the bible they are doing what all Christians agree is the christian thing to do
     • If Christians follow the teachings of the Church they are doing what other Christians think is right
     • If everyone followed their conscience rather than laws there would be chaos as no one would know what sort of behaviour to expect from each other

5. Situation ethics as a guide for making moral decisions

   • Why some christians believe you should...
     • Jesus followed Situation ethics because he overruled what the Old Testament said when he thought it was unloving. For example, healing people on the Sabbath as he said it was more important 6o do good than to obey the Sabbath laws
     • They think Christians should only do what will produce good results, such as stealing the nuclear weapons and allowing the twelve year old to have an abortion
     • Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbour, meaning Christians should always do what will have the most loving results
     • They believe that Christianity is a religion of love and so Christians should make there decisions based on love not laws
   • Why some Christians believe you should not...
     • They believe the bible is God's word to Christians about how to live, so it should be the basis for moral decision making
     • They believe that they should follow the 10 commandments and the Sermon on the Mount rather than relying on their own ideas
     • They think the Church knows better what christians should do than an individual Christian
     • They claim you can never be sure of the consequences of a choice as you do not all the facts behind the situation so it is better to follow the rules of Church and/or Bible

6. Human rights in the UK

   • Citizens of the Uk have certain basic rights such a the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to freedom of conscience and religion, the right to marry and start a family, the right to education and the right to take part in free elections
   • These rights are meant to make sure that all UK citizens are treated fairy and equally by the state

7. Why human rights are important for Christians

   • the right to life is a basic christian belief because of the belief that life is holy and belongs to God (sanity of life)
   • Christians believe that all people are made n the image of God and so are one human family, so it is important that everyone is treated fairly and equally and so people need human rights laws to protect minorities
   • Freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and associated are essential part of being Christian. Christians must have the legal right to meet together for worship and to have processions to celebrate Easter and Pentecost
   • An essential right for Christians is not to be disadvantaged compared to others, since it means that employees cannot discriminate against christians over jobs and pay. E.g employers cannot refuse to employ Christians as they do not want religious people in the workplace

8. Why some human rights can cause problems for christians

   • Many Christians are against the right to form civil partnerships as they believe that homosexuality is against Gods will as shown in the bible
   • Some Christian are against the right to marry a person from a different faith. They believe that christians should only marry christians so their children are brought up in the christian faith
   • Some Christians are against the right of homosexuals to raise a family. They believe that children should be raised by both a mother and a father
   • There might also be some problems for the Catholic Church if human rights laws were used to argue for the right of women to become priests, or the right to priests to marry

9. Why it is important to take part in democratic and electoral processes

   • you pay income tax on your wages and VAT on what you bu and voting gives you some control over how much this is
   • gives you a chance to affect new laws which may be passed
   • the national government is responsible for aspects like armed forces, schools, the NHS, benefits and pensions. Voting gives you a say on how these are run
   • your ancestors fought to have these electoral and democratic rights and so you should use them

10. Christian teachings on moral duties and responsabilities

    • the golden rule: which says Christians should treat one another in the way they would like to be treated
    • the parable of the sheep and the goats: which says that Christians should help the homeless, the sick and the hungry
    • am i my brothers keeper?: The story of Cain and Abel tells Christians that they are responsible for the rights of others

11. Different attitudes to genetic engineering and cloning in christianality

    • Liberal Protestants support genetic engineering because...
      • Jesus showed that Christians should do all they can to cure disease
      • Finding genetic cures is no different from finding drug cures
      • there is differences between creating cells and creamy people
      • Embryos are not foetuses until 14 days old
    • Roman Catholics agree wit genetic research as log as it does not involves the use of embryos because...
      • life begins at the moment of contraception whether in the womb or in a testube and killing is wrong
      • Killing an embryo is killing human life
      • Embryos have been produced bu un Christian means
    • Some Christians are against all because...
      • they believe that God created the genetic makeup of each person and people have no right to interfere with this
      • It is trying to play God which is a sin
      • It is wrong to try to make the Earth perfect, only heaven is perfect

12. The Nature of genetic engineering including cloning

    • Non religious arguments in favour of genetic engineering include: it offers the prospect of cures for currently incurable disease,, it is being done in other countries and s is available to those rich enough to travel and pay for treatment, cloning uses animal eggs, as in hybrids (a human nucleus in an empty animal egg) and so does not result in the loss of human life and genetic research is closely monitored by law, but has vast potential benefits
    • No religious arguments against genetic engineering include: theres is too little information about the long term consequences, it has effects which can't be changed so if anything went wrong it would be permanent, it places too much power in the hands off scientists who could produce scientifically created human beings and it treats the human body no different from plants