The Theft of Dignity

It is usually pretty easy to distinguish right actions from wrong actions. Even if the culpability of the person internally is outside our capacity to discern, when someone is murdered, stolen from, raped, we naturally say "that's wrong". We can justify it, of course, especially if we're the ones doing it. If anything, the human mind is clever, whether for truth or deceit. But while these actions are more obviously right or wrong, there is a more fundamental sin that often goes unnoticed, and is inextricably linked to our natural human sense of justice: the theft of dignity.

It is a universal Christian belief that God, as Divine Sovereign, cannot create anything bad. All His works are good. Because of this, all God's creations have an innate, inalienable dignity, and as humans created "in the image and likeness" of God (Genesis 1), we have an even higher dignity, a spirit which destines us to the Beatitude, the Resurrection previewed to us by Christ Himself. This dignity confers on all people basic human rights, as well as deeper attributes, residue of the mind and heart of our Maker - love, reason, conscience, a thirst for justice. These things come from God, and are carved into our very soul (Romans 1); though our sense of justice, truth and morality can be confused or maligned by evil intent, we retain those senses and continue to evidence throughout our lives the destiny for which we were made - to love, serve and glorify God.

Intellectual rejection of the inalienability of human dignity is rarely expressed in practice - on the other hand, the attitude of mutable human dignity is lived by most people throughout the world, acting as a fundamental form of sin. Each time we dehumanize our fellow man through greed and lust; judge him as if we are God through hatred and violence; and inflict injustice upon him by offering him no help, no charity, and restricting him from all work and livelihood, we steal his dignity. By treating someone as anything other than a wondrous, beautiful creation of God, His highest work of art, we sin against the plan of God, against our fellow man, and against ourselves, polluting our very hearts with sin and evil purposes.

While the dignity of the human person is inherent, evident to any wise enough to perceive it, only within the context of God's loving plan and holy creativity can it be fully understood, appreciated and given its inalienable quality, and only by a honest, compassionate adherence to conscience and God's revealed morality can we treat others as they deserve to be treated. This does not mean being nice and polite; God is not Victorian. It means treating one another with the deepest love, doing what is best for them always, while remaining within the obligatory limits our simultaneous love for God demands, as St. Paul delineated (1 Corinthians 13:3-7)

When we sin against the dignity of a person, acting towards them without the love they deserve, we are not simply trespassing a moral code or offending someone. When we do this, we steal their heart and soul - their very life, their worth and value as a person and creation of God. The world is full of this injustice, this dehumanization and theft of dignity. The poverty, rape and abuse, murder, theft - but also the hatred, mocking, ridicule, neglect, indifference, not giving people a chance. Thousands of homeless people are stuck on the streets, whether from their mistakes or the abuses of others is irrelevant to the love they deserve - and they are treated like human refuse, not merely ignored, but viewed as a disgrace to their neighbors. People are disgusted to walk down the street and see a man with no property, no home, no food, no water, living off our trash and treated lower than it. Most are so far in the pit of self-deprecation and abuse, accepting people's attitude towards them as true, that they don't even try to have a life. But once a person has been unemployed for some time, especially homeless, it is nearly impossible. Businesses view you as "unreliable", and so wash their hands of you.

It is a travesty, a tragedy and a deep injustice, a scar and taint on our society and on humanity in general, especially when everyday a few select are graced with millions upon millions and lust for more, while people are dying in the streets and contemplating suicide in their despair, preferring to die than to live a living death in the burning gaze of their brethren. But there is only one reason why this is wrong: inalienable human dignity. If human dignity can be changed by our mistakes, our sins and our original sin, the homeless deserve what's coming to them - and that's how most treat them.