Christianity & human rights.

Michael J. Perry ("The Morality of Human Rights," July 14) appropriately questions how nonbelievers can ground their commitments to human rights. He does not seem to recognize, however, that believers have our own challenges in this regard. For much of Christian history, the rights of women, children, and nonbelievers--not to mention persons enslaved or subjected to torture--were not recognized as children of God. One could argue that human rights became a universal concept only when nonbelievers made the case for a nonreligious ground for such rights. For some Enlightenment thinkers, it was a translation of the moral requirements of the Sermon on the Mount into the moral law of reason; but for others, it was an assertion of universal human values in protest against the partiality of Christian doctrine.

Some might argue that Christian bias across centuries was an aberration of the gospel and never the true doctrine of Christ. Still, the problem of a Christian foundation for universal human rights remains. On what basis would we assume that all must be treated the same? Even if we insist that Christ died for all--and not merely a chosen part of the whole--salvation does not necessarily require equal access to human rights in law and society.

Nietzsche's critique stands: whether God lives or dies, commitment to human rights is a radical choice, an act of faith--perhaps faith in a loving God, perhaps faith in our common humanity, or perhaps a combination of the two. Nowhere is it simply granted.

FRANK SCHWEIGERT

St. Paul, Minn.