Tag: procreation

Under guard and carefully preserved in the refrigerated atrium of the National Archives in Washington D.C. are the precious parchments upon which our country was founded. We reverently shuffled past the glass display cases, the low light barely illuminating the faded documents. To the left resides the Declaration of Independence while in the center is the Constitution. As we made our way to the right of the chamber a third document came into view. Dimly visible was the Bill of Rights, the sacred words that make up the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

Talk of “rights” is nothing new on the American scene. A course in American history is replete with the concept of rights, whether the rights of slaves to be free, the rights of women to vote or the rights of citizens to have access to affordable health care. But in our rush to claim our rights, more people are beginning to ask:

What is my duty?

Meic Pearse is one such voice. In Why the Rest Hates the West: Understanding the Roots of Global Rage (InterVarsity Press, 2004), he writes to those who have trouble understanding the context that gave rise to the atrocities of September 11, 2001. His argument is far-ranging, but a key plank in his thesis is the “me” orientation of Western (North American and European) culture vs. the “we” perspective of the non-Western world, what Pearse calls “the rest,” i.e. Africa, South America, and Asia. If the West were content to live out its radically individualistic credo without exporting it to the rest of the world, conflict could be avoided. However, in myriad ways, Pearse insists that countries like the United States are engaged in cultural imperialism, imposing our supposed superior values on others. One powerful source for this imperialism is media which includes sources on both sides of the political spectrum. Pearse observes (see Kindle location 1942):

Continue reading “When rights are secondary: Duty rediscovered” →