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Russian Orthodox Leader calls for a Return to Christian Interpretation of Human Rights

Decries "dominance of an agnostic or even a materialistic approach to life which causes anxiety amongst believers"

By Hilary White

GENEVA, March 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A leader of the Russian Orthodox Church has called for worldwide inter-religious dialogue on human rights and denounced the "dangerous" anti-life and secularist trends in human rights thought. Human rights, a concept brought into Europe by Christianity, has been subverted by a small group of activists and civil servants who have imposed an atheist or agnostic interpretation.

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kallingrad spoke for many Christians outside the Russian Orthodox Church when he told the 7th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva this week, "For Orthodox Christians something which is obvious is that human dignity cannot be conceived of without a religious and spiritual and moral dimension".

"Human rights," he said, "should not contradict moral norms."

He called on the highest councils of the UN to include religious views on human rights in their deliberations. Metropolitan Kirill, whose full name is Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev, serves as the Chairman of the External Church Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Kirill referred to the assumed "right to abortion" that neglects the "right of the embryo" and pointed out that current human rights thought makes no reference to ethics of embryo research. "It's even more astonishing to hear that human rights should now include the right to euthanasia," he said.

A major flaw of human rights theory is in the interpretation of the idea of freedom, in which the "right to choose" is defended, but "nothing is said about humans' responsibilities". The result of this separation is that "the freedom of the individual from evil is left undefended."

"Human rights," he said, "are based on the most fundamental right of all, that is the right to life and yet soon it might turn out that human rights are favouring death rather than life."

The perceived need to promulgate the concepts of universal human rights to people of differing religious beliefs, has led, he said, to the segregation of human rights thought from the religious beliefs that formed it.

The result of this segregation, he said is that "religious views have become a private matter and are not seen as a source of modern law, including human rights, and this is happening despite the fact that according to widespread information some 80 per cent of the inhabitants of the planet are religious."

This progression has led "to a dominance of an agnostic or even a materialistic approach to life which causes anxiety amongst believers."

Krill emphasised the movement away from a religious foundation by human rights theory has "caused anxiety" among religious people, who make up 80 per cent of the human population.

"Many States," he said, "are also under the influence of these forces and they are losing the ability to translate the authentic values sought by their peoples."

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