Human Dignity

I’ve just been reading Alan Milburn’s report: Young People and Work. He has been looking into the experience of NEETs – Young people Not in Education, Employment or Training. Nearly 1 million (1 in 8) young people aged 16-24 are in this situation and the number is rising. Milburn not only describes this issue as a strategic economic risk to the country but also as a moral crisis. He describes work as offering connection, self-respect and independence and says: ‘No young person should be written off because of where they start in life’.

About 10 days before the Young People and Work report the Pope published his report (called an Encyclical Letter): Magnifica Humanitas. The Pope also spoke about the value of human work. Interestingly Alan Milburn did not link the rise in NEETs to AI (Artificial Intelligence) but the Pope focussed his concerns on the challenges that AI poses to many areas of life including work. The Pope describes the ‘dignity of work’ and the risks of technology leading to unemployment because of a focus on reducing costs and increasing profits.

Both reports raise challenging issues which will take determination, coordination and long term sustained action to address. Both reports are founded on an understanding of the fundamental importance of human dignity. 

At the heart of the Christian faith is a belief that humans are made in the image and likeness of God.

‘So God created humankind in his image,

in the image of God he created them’

Genesis 1:26-27

Our value does not come from what we do but from God’s unconditional love shown in Jesus’s sharing of our humanity. Paul wrote to the Ephesians encouraging them to ‘know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God’. (Ephesians 3:19)

As creative beings made in God’s image, filled with the fullness of God, we all have the potential to contribute and express our God given humanity and dignity in the things we do - whether that is study, work, volunteering or care for our families and members of our community.

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

~Book of Common Prayer