Hope for a Global Ethic

HOPE FOR A GLOBAL ETHIC

SHARED PRINCIPLES IN RELIGIOUS SCRIPTURES

by Brian D. Lepard

Wilmette, Illinois

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Bahá’í Publishing, 415 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091-2844 Copyright © by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States All Rights Reserved. Published 2005 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper ∞ 08

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lepard, Brian D. Hope for a global ethic : shared principles in religious scriptures / Brian D. Lepard. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-931847-20-7 1. Bahai ethics. 2. Religious ethics—Comparative studies. 3. Sacred books. I. Title.

BJ1288.L47 2005 205—dc22 2005050727

Cover design by Robert A. Reddy Book design by Suni D. Hannan

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CONTENTS Acknowledgments ____________________________________ ix Note on the Transliteration of Foreign Words and Names _______________________________ xiii Preface _____________________________________________ xv 1 / Is There Hope for a Global Ethic? ___________________ 3 2 / Unity in Diversity ________________________________ 23 3 / The Golden Rule and the Importance of Good Deeds ______________________________________ 35 4 / Personal Virtues and Moral Duties _________________ 43 5 / The Equal Dignity of All Human Beings ____________ 65 6 / Human Rights ____________________________________ 73 7 / The Right to Life, Physical Security, and Subsistence ______________________________________ 83 8 / The Right to Freedom of Religion and Conscience ___________________________________ 91 9 / The Status of Women ____________________________ 103 10 / A Trust Theory of Government and Limited State Sovereignty _____________________________________ 115 11 / Open-Minded Consultation ______________________ 125 12 / Respect for Governments and Law _______________ 135 13 / Peace, Justice, and Respect for Treaties and International Law _______________________________ 145 14 / The Legitimate Use of Force _____________________ 157

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15 / Intervention to Rescue Human Rights Victims ____ 175 16 / Optimism and Pragmatism ______________________ 185 17 / The Prospects for a Global Ethic _________________ 191 Notes ______________________________________________ 201 Bibliography _______________________________________ 223

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Is There Hope for a Global Ethic?

“How could this happen?” This depressing question has preoccupied many of us after the atrocities of September 11, 2001. The general answer provided by the investigation that followed—that the attacks were committed by fanatical devotees of Islam who viewed it as their religious duty to kill Americans—has in turn raised another burning question: “Can there possibly be any hope for a global ethic, particularly in a world that is traumatized by terrorism, war, gross human rights violations, and religious division and hatred?”

There are three principal reasons for us to come to the pessimistic conclusion, “not in the near future.” First, there is no end to the social ills that plague the world community at the dawn of the twenty³rst century, leading many people to feel a profound sense of despair. Second, these ailments raise scores of troubling questions that would need to be addressed by a global ethic. And third, the rift between some Islamic and Western world views revealed by the attacks of September 11 seems to exemplify a deeper, broader disagreement among the peoples of the world about how to solve global problems. This disagreement appears today to create a forbidding obstacle to reaching accord on a worldwide moral standard.

Problems Facing the World Community The attacks of September 11, 2001, forever punctured in the minds of Americans any illusions that we are safe from the destructive gales of fanaticism and terrorism so depressingly familiar to resi3

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Is There Hope for a Global Ethic?

dents of the Middle East and other troubled areas of the globe.

Numerous wars, including in Iraq, but particularly in underdeveloped areas of the world, such as Africa, claim countless lives annually and leave many other victims horribly injured and disabled.1 The Middle East continues to be a hotbed of ethnic and religious strife. Many of these terrorist attacks, wars, and con·icts have been fueled by religious fanaticism and prejudice.

At the same time, and often as a direct result of wars and civil con·icts, millions of individuals around the world endure violations of their fundamental human rights. They su²er from starvation and a lack of su¹cient clothing, shelter, and medical care; are arrested and imprisoned, tortured, or executed without a fair trial or even a trial at all; are raped; are discriminated against or persecuted by reason of their race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, or religion; are silenced if they hold unpopular views; and are denied their right to practice freely their own religion.

In the economic realm, the materialistic culture pervading the West has, with the fall of Communism, been able to gain a foothold in other parts of the world. It has spawned increasing demands by residents of developing countries for consumer goods and a higher standard of living. These demands have propelled the process of economic “globalization,” leading to greater economic wealth for many businesses able to take advantage of these demands. Meanwhile, despite globalization and the enhancement of international trade, an unconscionable number of individuals in much of the developing world continue to su²er from debilitating poverty.2 The enhanced economic power of the West has encouraged the view of many non-Western political leaders that the West seeks cultural hegemony. These leaders have played on the fears of members of the global population who are dejected that their anticipated economic expectations have not been realized. They have exploited ageold prejudices to scapegoat “others” from a di²erent ethnic, racial, or

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Problems Facing the World Community

religious group. These leaders and others have made bold assertions of cultural identity that reject any possibility of reconciliation with other cultures or of the evolution of a world culture, including a universal ethic. Instead, they have advanced the notion of “cultural relativism”—that there are no true global ethical norms. The proponents of relativism argue that ethics is inextricably tied to particular cultures and that cultures are necessarily diverse and at some level irreconcilable. These trends and views have led political scientist Samuel P. Huntington to declare that future con·icts will be driven by a “clash of civilizations,” and as we watch the daily news, we may ³nd it easy to sympathize with this perspective.3 These divisive forces, however, appear simultaneously to be counteracted by a variety of harmonizing forces—of trends toward greater unity and cooperation among the diverse peoples of the world. For example, through the United Nations, states have attempted to intervene both diplomatically and militarily to prevent, or at least contain, many of the con·icts that have erupted in recent years.

The public may generally regard these attempts as failures. But these interventions have shown a nascent will on the part of many governments to work cooperatively to restore peace and achieve some minimal level of enjoyment of human rights. The UN has adopted numerous treaties and declarations specifying human rights, including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the early 1990s, the United Nations established ad hoc war crime tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and many of its member states established a permanent international criminal court in July 2002. And in the economic sphere, world trade talks, while contentious, have at least begun to address concerns about unreasonable barriers to international trade and the enhancement of economic growth worldwide. They have also tried to remedy undesirable attendant problems, such as the exploitation of workers and the uneven distribution of economic wealth.

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Is There Hope for a Global Ethic?

If these unifying forces are ultimately to hold sway over the destructive ones and keep them in check, they must be motivated by more than a simple desire to correct social ills. They must be anchored in, and forti³ed by, a veritable global ethic. Only a global ethic—a relatively speci³c set of shared ethical principles—will ultimately be su¹cient to support these more positive trends.

Some Crucial Issues That Need to be Addressed by a Global Ethic As the above brief survey makes clear, a global ethic must address a number of crucial ethical issues that today are the focus of much debate. For example, many claims are being made that our primary allegiance, morally, ought to be to our own ethnic or religious group, or to our own country. In the United States we are taught the virtues of patriotism, especially after the attacks of September 11, 2001. But are these moral claims legitimate? Or, for example, should we instead morally consider ourselves as members of one human family ³rst, and Americans only second?

Other important ethical issues involve the personal virtues we ought to cultivate and the moral duties to others we ought to recognize. For example, should we primarily value our own individual autonomy and the pursuit of our economic wealth, or should we renounce the pursuit of our own self-interest and instead show generosity to others? Do we all have a moral obligation to treat others as we would wish ourselves to be treated—that is, to follow the “Golden Rule”—or only a minimal obligation not to harm others or interfere with their own exercise of freedom? And what obligations do we have to provide assistance to the injured, the sick, the

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Some Crucial Issues That Need to be Addressed

destitute, or those who are oppressed by governments or their fellow citizens?

Advocates of cultural, racial, or religious separatism often argue for the inherent superiority of their own group. Are these claims justi³ed? Or should all of us as human beings be considered to have an equal spiritual and social dignity? Do we all have certain inviolable human “rights” that we can claim, or should we instead hope for charitable and bene³cent treatment from others, which is certainly commendable, but is not our “right”? Do we have a right to life and to physical security? Do we have a similar right to the bare necessities of food, clothing, and shelter necessary to keep us alive and healthy? Or is the enjoyment of these necessities merely a desirable social goal, rather than our right? What rights should women enjoy? What rights should members of minorities enjoy?

Similarly, we can ask: What rights do individuals and religious communities have to freely practice their own religion without fear of oppression by a government or by members of other religious groups? Religious scriptures have often been used by believers to justify religious warfare or terrorism, as in the case of the September 11 terrorists. But are these uses of scripture warranted or ethically justi³able?

Human rights issues raise another set of questions about the role of governments. What is the function of government—to promote the interests of the governors, the cohesion of society, minimal social order, or the well-being of the individual members of the governed society? Are nation-states entitled to a high degree of autonomy or “sovereignty”? Some Americans are arguing against US participation in international organizations and human rights treaties based on a claimed infringement of US sovereignty. Is the sovereignty of states ethically limited, especially by obligations to protect human rights?

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