Keith, thank you so much for weighing in!
I agree with everything you wrote, but we're not talking about the same things. You must not have read Derek Morphew's book on human rights, which was on sale at last year's SVS in Media, PA. Nor my two papers, both last year and the year before in Columbus. It would be helpful if you could look at some of that material. It was my paper in Columbus that stimulated the idea of bringing Stanley Hauerwas to SVS the next year.
We're not talking about our individual spiritual lives as followers of Jesus. We're talking about human rights because we live in a pluralist democratic society, which is part of a worldwide order that came into being after two horrendous world wars. Arguably, the holocaust (along with the few million others intentionally killed by the Nazis because they were gay, Gypsies, or whatever) would not have happened, at least to such an extent, if the other world powers had been more vigilant. Am I truly my bother's keeper, at least in an international political sense? The answer to that question would determine how you see US foreign policy and provide one more criterion in choosing candidates to vote for. Also, if you are a pacifist, you would say that nonviolence is the only path to a more just human society, locally and globally.
Jesus called his disciples "the light" and "the salt of the earth." Somehow, as we preach the kingdom of God, like Jesus we will have to seek to demonstrate it as well. Do we stop with preaching, healing and exorcisms? Or do also seek to do good? And if so, is this only about charitable works, and without any political involvement whatsoever? Apparently, like Joseph and Daniel in foreign lands (both imperial powers, though Egypt less so), God calls some of his people into politics.
It just so happens that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) was pushed through against great odds by a Christian woman (Eleanor Roosevelt). Many other people were involved, but few realize how influential she was! She was helped by the fact that these nations could see the point of agreeing on the basic dignity of the human person after some 40 million lives had wantonly been obliterated in a war started by Europeans, but which tragically affected many others as well. The UDHR became the foundation for international law as we know it today. It's what gives the UN its mandate, or the idea that (at least ideally!) working together for peace as nations will stop the repeat of such bloody global wars as took place in the 20th century, especially now that we actually do have weapons of mass destruction!
Also, if you care about human trafficking, you will not get very far without collaborating with secular agencies, or in SE Asia, Buddhist ones, etc. Human rights is the lingua franca everyone understands in the fight to make this world a more just and peaceful one.
Have a look at Derek's book, "The Kingdom of God and Human Rights" (Derek got interested in this topic in his fight against Apartheid in South Africa) or at this pretty readable (not all my stuff is that readable!) article I had published in an international law review, available here on my website ("A Muslims & Christian Orientation to Human Rights"): http://www.humantrustees.org/resources/item/134-indiana-law-review-hrs