If our rights come from Washington, then Washington can take them away. That’s not freedom but a road toward tyranny. The debate on whether rights come from God or government isn’t new, but it was brought back into focus recently by Sen. Tim Kaine.
The Virginia Democrat argued it was “extremely troubling” that our rights come from our Creator rather than “from our governments.” Kaine claims rights come from the state, standing worlds apart from his fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Jefferson’s assertion that rights come from God and therefore cannot be taken away forms the backbone of America’s rise and prosperity.
If our rights don’t come from our Creator and instead come from government, then our rights can be taken away any time the government chooses to do so.
Some may find Kaine’s remarks reasonable; America isn’t a theocracy after all. He is correct that our rights should be enshrined in law. But if rights exist only because the law says so, then those in power can rewrite the law and strip them away. The past teaches us that those in power often use the government for their own benefit. Responding to Kaine on the Senate floor, Sen. Ted Cruz pointed to slavery, “Slavery was not OK when U.S. law allowed it. It was wrong then, it is wrong now, it is always wrong.” If rights must rest on something stronger and more durable than government, where should we look?
Humans are born in the Imago Dei, or in the image of God, meaning we all have dignity and purpose. Translated into political terms, this means all of us have God-given rights that cannot be taken away. That doesn’t mean some haven’t tried. The common theme behind all oppressive authoritarian regimes has been their rejection of the idea of unalienable rights. History proves the point: Hitler, Stalin and Mao defined rights however it suited their agendas.
Accepting that we have God-given rights doesn’t require church membership. Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and Abraham Lincoln were not Bible-believing Christians, yet they still believed our rights come from God. They understood that freedom in Western civilization relies on the belief that all men are created equal and that our rights must be grounded in something more trustworthy than the state. There comes a sense of humility from acknowledging that ultimate sovereignty lies with the Creator, not with fallible men, vulnerable to corruption. The founders recognized this, adding the Bill of Rights to the Constitution to enshrine our rights in a place where those in Washington could not take them away. This understanding of authority, stretching from the pilgrims to our founding to today, continues to shape our laws, virtues and culture.
Ideas matter. In an age of populism and partisanship, it’s crucial we hold onto the principles that have made America the freest and most prosperous country in human history. This means standing up for our God-given rights and refusing to let anyone in government deny them.
Martin Luther King Jr. understood this. The Imago Dei informed how he and others in the Civil Rights Movement fought segregation. He explained in his “I Have a Dream” speech:
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
President Ronald Reagan was motivated by the same belief in God-given rights. He understood the fundamental difference between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was our understanding of rights. Reagan contrasted our freedom with their oppression, saying:
“Most of them, even the one of the Soviet Union, contains many of the same guarantees as our own Constitution, and still there is a difference. The difference is so subtle that we often overlook it, but it is so great that it tells the whole story. Those other constitutions say, ‘Government grants you these rights,’ and ours says, ‘You are born with these rights; they are yours by the grace of God, and no government on Earth can take them from you.’”
The promise of America has always been that our rights are not gifts from rulers but guarantees from our Creator. That truth has carried us for 250 years, and it can carry us still — if we have the courage to defend it.
Karl Beckstein is a businessman from Raleigh.
