Affirming human dignity in a dehumanising world
17 December 2025
Rev. Dr Jooseop Keum writes:
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
Greetings of Joy and peace from the Council for World Mission in this wonderful season of Christmas. It is a season when the world leans once more toward the manger to witness the mystery of divine love wrapped in human flesh.
Like the past few years, this year also we gather in the shadow of profound challenges. We live in a world where decisions are delegated to algorithms, productivity is measured by robotic precision, and global economies are increasingly depending on automation rather than the dignity of human labour. Artificial Intelligence promises efficiency, yet it often deepens inequality. Global communities, particularly in the Global South, experience this technological transformation not as liberation but unfortunately as displacement and replacement. Workers are being told they are surplus. Migrants are labelled unnecessary. The elderly, disabled, unemployed, and economically marginalised are rendered useless in systems that privilege profit over people.
Human beings are at risk of becoming data points, replaceable labour units, and disposable components within the rapidly increasing technocratic structures. This is the new face of dehumanisation. And it is precisely into such a world that Christmas speaks with clear message with boldness and hope: we will never give up being human.
John 1:14 proclaims that “The Word became flesh and lived among us” and Luke 2:10-11 announces us that the news about Saviour’s birth is for all people, “I bring you good news of great joy for all people”.
Christmas is a reminder about God’s Eternal Affirmation of Human Worth
Jesus’ birth as a human child is God’s decisive declaration that every human life matters. Christ did not come as an idea or a disembodied spiritual force, but as a vulnerable child. God’s glory was not revealed in palaces or high places, but in a humble manger where there was “no room.”
Christ’s kenotic birth dignifies the poor, the excluded, and all who are pushed aside by systems that glorify power and efficiency. It dismantles every hierarchy that deems some lives essential and others surplus or expendable. Every human being bears the Imago Dei. Every life carries intrinsic worth. No one is surplus. No one is disposable.
Christmas Calls us to Resist Technocratic Dehumanisation
As economies rapidly automate and AI reshapes the nature of work, it becomes tempting for societies to treat people as obstacles to efficiency. Yet to be truly human is not to produce; it is to relate, to love, to imagine, to dream, to grieve, to create, and to hope.
Our dignity is not measured by usefulness. It is grounded in God’s creative love. Christmas calls us to stand with communities whose dignity is threatened by the idols of market, machine, militarism, and meritocracy.
Christmas Calls the Humanity and Creation as One Family
In an increasingly polarised world, Christmas invites us back to the truth that humanity is one family. At the manger, every boundary dissolves. Shepherds and angels, poor and rich, human and divine, creation and Creator, all converge in a shared celebration of life.
The manger becomes the meeting place of heaven and earth, power and poverty, insiders and outsiders. The dividing lines of race, class, caste, nation, gender, and status crumble before the Christ-child.
- At the manger, the shepherds, who are labourers on the lowest circle of society, stand side by side with angels.
- At the manger, the poor share space with the hopes of the whole world.
- At the manger, human beings kneel beside the God who became human.
- At the manger, Creation offers its straw, its warmth, and its night sky to cradle the newborn Messiah.
The manger gathers us into a single human family. It reminds us that before we are citizens of nations, members of communities, or participants in economies, we are humans, we belong to one another, and we belong to God.
As Archbishop Desmond Tutu often said, “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” Christmas makes this truth visible, tangible, and undeniable.
Celebrating Christmas is to join God’s work of renewing life in all its fullness, here and now.
Therefore, as we stand before the manger in 2025, let us proclaim with courage and conviction:
We Remain Human Together
We will never give up being human.
We will never surrender our God-given dignity.
We will never allow technological or economic systems to define human worth.
May Emmanuel renew our hope and deepen our commitment to life-giving mission in our world.
A blessed Christmas from the CWM to you all!
Rev. Dr Jooseop Keum
General Secretary, Council for World Mission
