As the world's memory of apartheid receded, Desmond Tutu responded to a stream of invitations to speak around the world on the practical implications of ubuntu. An excerpt from a speech to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in 2001 follows.
We inhabit a universe that is characterized by diversity. There is not just one planet or one star; there are galaxies of all different sorts, a plethora of animal species, different kinds of plants, and different races and ethnic groups. God shows us, even with a human body, that it is made up of different organs performing different functions and that it is precisely that diversity that makes it an organism. If it were only one organ, it would not be a human body. We are constantly being made aware of the glorious diversity that is written into the structure of the universe we inhabit, and we are helped to see that if it were otherwise, things would go awry. How could you have a soccer team if all were goalkeepers? How would it be an orchestra if all were French horns?
For Christians, who believe they are created in the image of God, it is the Godhead, diversity in unity and the three-in-oneness of God, which we and all creation reflect. It is this imago Dei too that invests each single one of us -- whatever our race, gender, education, and social or economic status -- with infinite worth, making us precious in God's sight. That worth is intrinsic to who we are, not dependent on anything external, extrinsic. Thus there can be no superior or inferior race. We are all of equal worth, born equal in dignity and born free, and for this reason deserving of respect whatever our external circumstances. We are created freely for freedom as those who are decision-making animals and so as of right entitled to respect, to be given personal space to be autonomous. We belong in a world whose very structure, whose essence, is diversity, almost bewildering in extent. It is to live in a fool's paradise to ignore this basic fact.
We live in a universe marked by diversity as the law of its being and our being. We are made to exist in a life that should be marked by cooperation, interdependence, sharing, caring, compassion and complementarity. We should celebrate our diversity; we should exult in our differences as making not for separation and alienation and hostility but for their glorious opposites. The law of our being is to live in solidarity, friendship, helpfulness, unselfishness, interdependence and complementarity as sisters and brothers in one family -- the human family, God's family. Anything else, as we have experienced, is disaster.
Racism, xenophobia and unfair discrimination have spawned slavery, when human beings have bought and sold and owned and branded fellow human beings as if they were so many beasts of burden. They have spawned the Ku Klux Klan and the lynchings of the segregated South of the United States. They have given birth to the Holocaust of Germany and the other holocausts of Armenians and in Rwanda; the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and the awfulness of apartheid; and what we have seen in Sri Lanka, in Northern Ireland, in the Middle East, in the Sudan, where there has been a spiral of reprisals leading to counter-reprisals, and these in turn to other reprisals. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Where the law of an eye for an eye obtains, in the end all will be blind. If we don't learn to live as brothers, we will die together as fools."
Religion, which should foster sisterhood and brotherhood, which should encourage tolerance, respect, compassion, peace, reconciliation, caring and sharing, has far too frequently -- perversely -- done the opposite. Religion has fueled alienation and conflict and has exacerbated intolerance and injustice and oppression. Some of the ghastliest atrocities have happened and are happening in the name of religion. It need not be so if we can learn the obvious: that no religion can hope to have a monopoly on God, on goodness and virtue and truth.
Our survival as a species will depend not on unbridled power lacking moral direction, or on eliminating those who are different and seeking only those who think and speak and behave and look like ourselves. That way is stagnation and ultimately death and disintegration. That is the way of people in times especially of transition, of instability and insecurity, when there is turmoil and social upheaval, poverty and unemployment. Then people seek refuge in fundamentalisms of all kinds. They look for scapegoats, who are provided by those who are different in appearance, in behavior, in race and in thought. People become impatient of ambivalence. Differences of opinion are not tolerated and simplistic answers are the vogue, whereas the reality is that the issues are complex.
We need so much to work for coexistence, for tolerance, and to say, "I disagree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to your opinion." It is only when we respect even our adversaries and see them not as ogres, dehumanized, demonized, but as fellow human beings deserving respect for their personhood and dignity, that we will conduct a discourse that just might prevent conflict. There is room for everyone; there is room for every culture, race, language and point of view.
Desmond Tutu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Definitely a man I would love to sit and talk with - NOT because you are a famous Man of
Religion - but because you are a Decent Man. And a Harmless Man.
As we both know, it is all too easy to to sprout dogmas, doctrines, prayers - just like parrots.
But, our REAL challenges/growth/evolution occurs when we are confronted with who/what represents the "challenge" to our precious dogmas/beliefs. Invariably, this also involves confronting
our own "fears". It is in these moments that we discover who we REALLY ARE vs who we THINK
we are. We can say anything but it is what we DO which really counts the most.
Like soldiers who train for battle: one can make the training as "real" as possible - but, a part of the soldier "knows" he is safe because it is only "training". It is only when the soldier faces REAL bullets against people who DO want to kill him, does one (and the soldier) find out WHO he REALLY IS. Up until then, one has BELIEF without CERTAINTY.
Bless you, Monsieur Tutu, for your integrity and grace under pressure and prejudice.
Diversity is a fact of life. It is neither "good" nor "bad." It is not something to be "celebrated" nor should it be some superficial "goal" based on a narrow, parochial notion of proportionality. It already exists. The crucial element that is all too often lacking in discussions centered on diversity is respect, and from respect the demand that those who are different are made to feel welcome, or at the very least are not made to feel unwelcome.
Diversity in any setting must be real, not artificially manufactured to create a certain "look." Think respect. Always respect.
a Methodist from L.A., a Catholic from Farmington Hills, Mi....all close to my age, plus a Seattle born and bred atheist who's turing 30 next year. My social circle also includes an 86 year old WWII veteran and an African American woman in her early sixties.How boring life would be if I confined my social life to folks whose background matched mine!
I haven't allowed my son to see his father since 2009 and am trying to learn
how to stop being an alienating mother. At first I didn't think our son needed his
father in his life but now I am finally realizing how this negative attitude has harmed
him over the years. any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you. loredana brigandi
Or, I don't like Obama - could mean I don't like black people... which in turn could mean... I don't like people who are different than me.... which in turn could mean.... I don't like people who respond to me in a way I do not expect .... which could mean... I wanted my dad's help in doing my math homework but he yelled at me and called me "stupid".... which could mean, my dad was dealing with drug addiction issues and this is why he yelled at me......
etc etc. if you go down this road, there is no cause - there's only effect. And the lack of acceptance of what's so - the effect, is what is interpreted as "grief and suffering and pain"....
Anyway, as I've gotten older I tend to notice the similarities between people, as opposed to the differences. I think amplifying similarities between people bridges divides better than focusing on differences, especially those based on immutable characteristics.
We could start by cleaning up our economic and environmental disasters, something we all share.
I agree with many people here because I believe in God, but not organized religion. When it comes to the commandments I believe that Carlin said it best, we only need two main commandments with one extra one as a precaution
1) THOU SHALT ALWAYS BE HONEST AND FAITHFUL, ESPECIALLY TO THE PROVIDER OF THY NOOKIE.
2) THOU SHALT TRY REAL HARD NOT TO KILL ANYONE, UNLESS, OF COURSE, THEY PRAY TO A DIFFERENT INVISIBLE AVENGER THAN THE ONE YOU PRAY TO.
3)THOU SHALT KEEP THY RELIGION TO THYSELF!!!
yes even the 2%ers will be losers as they hide behind their gated communities and the day will come when their children will have to be escorted to their private schools like in other third world nations. all lose with ignorance.
but in those hardships we bring on ourselves there is ample opportunity to learn and to advance our souls. we americans are a classic example of how not to handle diversity. we are not alone one only has to look around the world to see rigid examples of a lack of cooperation between diverse groups of people.