SOCIAL EQUALITY AND CARE FOR CREATION; A QUEST FOR TRUTHFUL HUMAN LIVING.

Author: Babiro Duro Djassi.

The quest for social equality has been the dream of civilizations throughout human history. In this violent and troubled century the strong exploit the weak, some people are wealthy while others are poor, and both men and women are not treated equally. Conflict arises out of unfair treatment. But he who respects others will be respected, and he who loves others will be loved by them.

 It is true that equality among the world occurrences is difficult to establish, yet we can start by strengthening our appreciation and understanding of equality within our mind. Equality remains a contested concept. From ancient times, people have pondered the meaning and importance of equality, but when it comes to contextualizing the ideal, efforts often failed.

The Oxford Advanced Leaner’s Dictionary defined “equality as the state of being equal, especially in status, rights etc” … Social equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status  and respects which includes equal right under the law, security, voting right freedom of Speech and assembly, property right and equal access to social goods and services. It also includes concepts of economic equity, access to education and other social securities.

Equality is a legal concept and has no practicality outside the law. That is, we are all equal under the law regardless of our citizenship status. Social equality allows us to enjoy our individual natural rights and the inequality of people outside the law; it is what makes us so successful in terms of evolution. We cannot demand equality of others outside the law without first do away with the concept of equality under the law. Therefore, means no one is above the law and no one can abrogate or derogate the rights of others.

However, social equality is concern with the sharing of social goods and burden, such as income, wealth, opportunity, education, and health care. Social equality requires also the absence of legally enforced social class boundaries and the absence of unjustified discrimination motivated by an inalienable part of a person’s identity. For example, sex, gender, race, age, sexual orientation, origin, caste or class, income or property, language, religion, convictions, opinions, health or disability must not result in unequal treatment under the law and should not reduce opportunities unjustifiably.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The  importance of equality is to ensure that all people have the same rights as each other person, that no person with any difference, no person with any disability, no race, no sex, any man woman or child would be treated differently from any other man woman or child in any country.

Now, taking into consideration the concept of justice, it has more than a thousand meaning. However, one would always find a certain outstanding keywords. For instance St. Thomas Aquinas defined justice as “the firm and constant will to give to each one his due”. Therefore, the notion of justice is based upon fundamental right of human beings and to treat them unequal is injustice. In Africae Munus, Pope Benedict XVI notifies that “human peace obtained without justice is illusory and ephemeral. Human justice which is not the fruit of reconciliation in the true of love remains incomplete; it is not authentic justice.” Justice therefore, is never disembodied its needs to be anchored in consistent human decisions.

Most of the contemporary theories of justice testify that justice is overwhelmingly important: John Rowls claims that Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. Justice can be thought of as distinct from and more fundamental than benevolent, charity, mercy, generosity or compassion. Among Christian theologians during the middle Ages, “justice was seemed as one of those habits which are meritorious features of the person’s character. They typically classified justice as one of the four so called cardinal virtues, the others being prudence, fortitude and temperance; to these they added the three so called theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.”  But justice is not only a meritorious character trait. Justice is also a meritorious dimension of social relationships a social practice or arrangement, as well as some specific social interaction, justice may prevail in a certain regard within a certain group of people, or may fail to prevail.

Recalling the scripture, Jesus said: “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Again after the resurrection appearing to his disciples the first words that came out of his mouth was “peace is with you.  Hence in the gospel of John Jesus said to his disciples: “peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” The gift of peace wished in the Easter greetings is possible on earth. Jesus wishes nothing to his disciple more than peace, he is peace, and he is the bond between God and Humans and between humans and themselves. Hence, the Oxford advanced learner’s Dictionary describe peace “as freedom from war or violence, however, research conducted shows that peace is not only the absence of war or violence, but it is something beyond that, “peace is rather a relationship between individuals groups, countries and systems where conflicts are solved without violence. Peace in its totality has to embrace Shalom, Eirene and Pax.”

Now peace is not that which is achieved at an instance, rather is that which is to be build gradually and continually.  In view of the theology of creation, peace connotes the achievement of harmonious relationship between man and environment. In this sense it is more than just good relations between people merely absence of war and strife, and a mere balance of powers between adversaries. But rather it is a positive quality of individual and social life, and it can be attained by practice equality, goodness by safeguarding the good person, by free communication among people, by respecting the dignity of person and practicing fraternity, that is sharing things accordingly and equally as Pope Paul VI says: “development is the new name of peace, and peace cannot be limited to a mere absence of war, the result of an ever precarious balance of force. No, peace is something that is built up day after day, in the pursuit of an order a more perfect form of justice among men.”

In our days, there is a growing awareness that world peace is threatened not only by the arms race, regional conflicts and continued injustice among people and nations, but also lack of due respect for creation,  plundering of natural resources and by a progressive decline in the quality of life for many people. Therefore, care for creation is of immense consequence, not least because creation is the beginning and the foundation of all God’s works and its preservation has now become essential for the pacific coexistence of mankind. Man in humanity to man has giving rise to numerous threats to equality, justice and peace and to authentic and integral human development.

The doctrine of creation is one of the major theological themes that inform a Christian ethic; “That God repeatedly declared his creation to be good, that it is purposely ordered to attest the perfections of its maker and to contribute to the development of faith and righteousness in human beings created in his image, and that they are entrusted with responsibilities in and for the creation.” thus according to Pope Benedict XVI “respect for creation is an important element of justice and peace”. Hence, the question is: how can we forget, for that matter that the struggle for access to natural resources is one of the causes of a number of conflicts not least in Africa as well as continuing threat elsewhere? For this reason it is just reasonable to say that to cultivate justice and peace one must protect creation. And so says Pope Benedict XVI: “if we want peace, we need to preserve creation.”

The common saying that when the last tree dies, the last man dies’, should prompt us to show great concerns for the environment and issues concerning the exploitation of it in the name of economic expansion or development  or advancement. We cannot sacrifice the future of our world today by the reckless and senseless exploitation of our mineral, timber and others resources in which most at time is not equally well shared among the people. Thus the task to protect the creation is not only the responsibility of the government, but that of every right thinking individual. Hence according to the Christian faith from the book of geneses, God gave us the tasks of being the overseer of his creation when he said: “let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”

Human beings have unique place in the world. God, in his wisdom, has placed man at the pinnacle of his creation. He has endowed us with ability to discover and understand the inherent laws of nature in order to cultivate and develop them.   However it is proper that respect for creation should be situated within the larger framework of the great challenges now facing mankind.  People have to understand that if we wish to build a world of justice and peace, it is impossible to separate the protection of creation and the equality of human beings. The protection for creation calls for an appropriate management of the natural resources equally in Africa for example; erosion and desertification of large tracts of arable land as a result of exploitation and environmental pollution.  Thus there is a need to make political and economical decisions which ensure forms of agricultural and industrial production capable of respecting creation and satisfying the primary needs of all.

Tracing back to our cultural values as Africans, a communiqué issued by the Ghana Bishops conference made us to remember that, same years ago respect for creation has always been upheld in our culture. They were certain prohibitions which ensure the preservation against cutting trees from certain forest, farming on certain days of the week, and fishing in some water bodies that were considered sacred. Such prohibitions underscore not only the ingenuity of our forebears but also their insight and intelligence, as these were cultural ways of preserving the ecosystem.  But currently the over exploitation and unbridled use of nature is threatening to disrupt the ecosystem as designed by the creator and is undermining our survival, security and peace.

Now the question is; can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with realities such as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions? Can we remain impassive in the face of actual and potential conflicts involving access to natural resources?  All these are issues with a profound impact on the exercise of human rights, such as the right to life, food, health and equally in the society.

As I stated just from the beginning of this article, our ability to reason testify that human beings are different by accident, but not by essence.  Hence, on the social plane, human consciences are challenge by the grave injustice existing in our world as a whole and Africa in particular. The cry for Justice, peace, and respect for creation is untenable with a massive inequality in our various societies.  In support of Pope Benedict XVI idea; “the plundering of the goods of the earth by a minority to the detriment of entire peoples is unacceptable, because it is immoral.” Thus justice, peace, and respect for creation oblige us to render to each his due. Equality is to prevail in all areas of life, private and public economic and social, it needs to be sustained by subsidiary and solidarity, and still more, to be inspired by charity.

Social equality calls for equal treatment, opportunity and access to resources whereby there would be few separating division, such as differentiations between genders, races, religious groups, or income that give some people more opportunities than others. No matter what society members have or who they are, they are call to be treated equally and have equal opportunities; hence the lack of equality in our societies brought the struggle for access to natural resources individual which are the basic conflicts in Africa. People become more violent when they are cheated by others. In our societies today, the individuals are rich, but the majorities are poor and getting poorer as time goes on. In this situation how can we talk about justice, peace, and respect for nature, when the children of our politicians are studying in good schools and others are not. How can we talk of peace whereby few people have access to potable waters, and others are still drinking from the stream with all the consequences of health problem, how can we talk of peace where some people have access to light good roods living in a good house, eating three times a day and others are still struggling to get even a single lunch.  How can we talk of peace whereby our natural resources are been taken away from us without our consent and notice? Thus social equality for this reason have immense power in ensuring, justice, peace and respect for creation, whereby all the citizens thought with some differences, they are to be treated equally with the basic human right in order to make the life comfortable.

In conclusion we can testify that by nature human beings are different, but our difference does not mean we should not be treated equally. Thus justice, peace and respect for creation can be attain only when we see our differences as a way of promoting mutual bond of value. Social equality therefore, urges us to spread the truth of our inherent interconnectedness and interdependency and the truth that many and one are the same. In dealing with others we should give up any lingering sense of self-righteousness, and cooperate with others. Let us learn from the universality of space and the extensiveness of time to create tolerance and universalism in the world. If we can do that, we will succeed in making this world a place of equality and tolerance for all to live in justice, peace and respect for creation.