‘Human Rights is Center of Jesus’

Gospel,’ says SU Theologian

‘Human rights [is] not an add-on to human life. This idea is really the heart
of our Gospel. Human right is constitutive of (being) human. This is
thoroughly biblical and messianic. This is what Jesus insists and asserts in
the gospels, shared Dr. Karl James E. Villarmea during an online forum
held via ZOOM to mark the 72nd Anniversary of the United Nations’
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On his capacity as associate professor in biblical studies and ethics at

Silliman University Divinity School, Villarmea served as reactor during the
forum entitled, “Prospects for Human Rights Today” – an installment of
The Wednesday Forum (TWF) focused on the human rights situation in the
Philippine context.

“The right to eat, have access to food, the right to heal and to be healed, the
right to exorcise and to be exorcised. Indeed, even the right to forgive and
be forgiven. This is the (human) life of course for which Jesus declares and
inaugurates,” Villarmea elaborated on the biblical foundations of human
rights found specifically in the Gospel accounts.

Meanwhile, as the world marked the 72nd anniversary of the signing of the
United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week, he also
pointed out that human rights is simply not about the universal declaration
which for him was stained by Eurocentrism. For Villarmea, human rights is
truly the heart of the Gospel of Jesus.

Villarmea, who is currently teaching at the Divinity School, completed his

PhD in Theology, Ethics and Human Sciences from the Chicago Theological
Seminary, USA in 2015.

The said installment of TWF was graced by two reputable speakers: Dr.
Liberato “Levi” C. Bautista, head of the United Nations Office of the United
Methodist Board of Church and Society and Atty. Neri J. Colmenares, a
human rights lawyer, activist, and a recipient of the International Bar
Association Award for Outstanding Contribution by a Legal Practitioner to
Human Rights.
The Wednesday Forum (TWF), since the martial law days, has become a
venue for open discourse on various topics affecting the life of the country
and its people. This was began at the United Church of Christ in the
Philippines (UCCP) Cosmopolitan Church by Rev. Cirilo Rigos and former
Sen. Jovito Salonga. At present, it is now under the leadership of its
executive director, Pastor Alvaro Senturias, a Sillimanian and current
administrative pastor of Paradahan UCCP.

“Prospects for Human Rights Today” was co-organized by the Silliman

University Divinity School and the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum.