Much is heard today about the violations of human rights. The idea behind forming a statement, of responsibilities is that 'rights' for adults are accompanied by responsibilities.

To One's God
To One's Community
To One's Family
To One's Self

To know God and to worship Him

To recognize His latest Manifestation and be obedient to His laws

To pray and read the Word of God each day

To teach others about God's Word

To contribute to one's religion

To consort with people of all religions
in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship

To respect all of God's creatures and creation.

To be obedient to one's government

To contribute to the welfare of the poor,
handicapped, elderly, and orphaned

To have a sense of world citizenship

To have a sense of community citizenship

To serve one's fellowman

To work for world unity and peace

To work for universal understanding and language

To support the elimination of prejudices

To support the equal rights of men and women, races,
varied cultures and religions

To support the development of science, the arts, and culture

To teach one's children about religion

To be happy and love one another

To develop strong unified families
and respect the rights of each individual

To support one's family and children

To educate one's children

To sincerely and honestly investigate the Truth
and overcome superstitions and vain imaginations

To be moral and improve one's character

To earn a living by a trade, craft or profession

To become educated and informed

To be moderate and balanced in one's consumption

There are undoubtedly more rights and responsibilities than one could exhaustively list. There are rights and responsibilities between employers and employees, governments and their citizens, marriage partners and their spouses, children and their parents, and many other combinations that could be named.

The smallest infant, of course has only rights and no responsibilities. It is as one begins to mature that they gain responsibilities. It is for this reason, that they may mature, that young children should start to be given responsibilities starting from a very young age.

In any relationship the responsibilities of the partners to the relationship may, and indeed usually will, differ. Thus it is that governments will have one set of responsibilities and its citizens another. Employers one and employees another. Even within marriages there are defined areas of responsibilities. This is not to say that all citizens, employees, marriage partners, or children within a family are not equal.

Equality, however, is often a chimera. Both the needs and capabilities of individuals differ. Consequently, the rights and responsibilities of an older sibling will often be radically different from those of a younger. Such distinctions apply to the whole of the family of man. Those individuals with particular needs, or talents, must be given special consideration to satisfy those needs, or develop those talents.

The pressing need of individual humanity today is for Justice. The pressing need of collective humanity today is for Unity. When unity is achieved by mankind peace will naturally ensue. Many persons today mistakenly believe that peace is the most pressing need of mankind today, but true and lasting peace will not be just the absence of war, it will be the result of the unification of mankind. If this unification is accompanied by Justice it will also naturally result in prosperity.

The unity of mankind does not presuppose the homogenization of mankind. There can be, indeed must be, diversity in unity. For mankind to fulfill its potential it must display all the diversity and variety in the human garden that is seen, by analogy, in a beautifully cultured flower bed.

These, then, are the ideals that the mature thinker, or if you will, that the mature soul must strive towards in this day. To the degree, and only to the degree, that more and more of humanity becomes composed of mature and responsible adults will the heavenly kingdom appear on earth. It is the responsibility of each one of us to strive towards that goal.

This is a preliminary attempt to develop a statement of the responsibilities of a mature adult.

YOUR assessment, comments, or suggested additions or modifications would be greatly appreciated.

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