For our midterm this semester we are going to compose a well- developed essay examining the role of human rights and human responsibilities in one of the eastern religions. The “Eastern Religions” are those of Asia, or the orient, also known as the eastern world.
These are covered in your book in chapters 6, 7, and 8. They are:
• Hinduism
• Buddhism
• Daoism
• Confucianism
• Shinto
For this project you want to develop two basic concepts. These are human rights and human responsibilities. Rights are privileges which belong to every human being simply by virtue of their being a person. Human rights have to do with our deeper understanding of what it means to be human. The way we understand the definition of “a person” shapes the ways we treat one another. The problem is that in various ways we treat people differently depending on which sort of people we are talking about. Across human cultures, we afford more rights to one sort of people and fewer rights to other sorts of people. This makes the whole discussion about human rights very complex and intertwined with our cultural perspective.
Responsibilities are obligations that also come with our being human. In each culture, people are expected to comply with certain expectations. One way to understand any religion is by looking at these rights and responsibilities. Viewed in this way, any religion tells its followers two basic things: “This is who you are.” And “This is what you are expected to do.” As a preacher, I don’t know how many sermons I have given where one of these two themes have been touched upon. “This is who we are, and this is what we are expected to do
On the surface this seems very simple, but it rapidly gets all wrapped up in the privileges and expectations that come with each culture. To look into this, we can look at the rights of women in the culture surrounding any given religion. We might also look at the rights of minorities, or people who are at the fringes of the culture. People at the fringes of cultural acceptance are known as “marginalized populations.” Here we are looking at the lives of people who are not accepted by the predominant culture. We can also look at attitudes toward “outsiders”, or people who belong to other cultures or other religions.
So, your assignment is as follows;
Please compose a well-developed essay examining human rights and human responsibilities in one of the eastern religions covered in chapters 6, 7, or 8. Your essay should be at least 3 pages long but not more than 5 pages long. (double spaced) Remember to include a clear works cited page. DO NOT try to copy your response off the internet.
