Lately I have been wondering: what exactly are "rights"? What are my rights, as a citizen of the United States? What are my rights as a human being? Why do these things seem to be different?
As the gay marriage debate is reaching a frenzy and I hear calls for equality and giving people their "rights", it's caused me to wonder what rights actually are. During the health care debate, there was much talk about how quality health care is a "right". Just yesterday I was vaguely listening to an NPR segment when someone announced that a good education is a "right".
Of course, you can hearken back to the Declaration of Independence, which declares that, as Americans, we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Bill of Rights gives us protection over freedom of speech, bearing arms, not harboring foreign troops, due process, trial by jury, civil trial by jury, no excess and cruel punishment, protection of rights not enumerated in the Constitution, power of the states and people.
I'm not really seeing much here in our modern speak about rights. In modern times, we tend to equate rights with things that will make us prosperous and happy. So, if I have a right to quality health care, does that mean that I have the right to fly to the Mayo Clinic or Johns Hopkins to do my prenatal care (and have my insurance pay for it)? If my children have a right to a quality education, does that mean that that I should be able to have the government subsidize their tuition in order to send them to the British School? If I should be able to marry whomever I want, can I marry my sister if we're both of age and consenting?
I think that it's a slippery slope when you start to talk about rights, personally. It becomes something so personal and defensive that it's almost impossible to have any kind of meaningful conversation about it.
As a Christian, what are my rights? What does the Bible say about my rights? Does the Bible even talk about this concept? The definition of a "right" from dictionary.com is as follows:
that which is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees, moral principles, etc.
a moral, ethical, or legal principle considered as an underlying cause of truth, justice, morality, or ethics.
According to these definitions, I don't think the Bible does talk about rights. The verses about us being dust and worms come to mind and God certainly has His own justice, which will be revealed at the end. But does the Bible speak of rights? I'd be interested to hear if there are opinions out there on that.
3 comments:
I think that many people use the words "rights" and "privilege" as synonyms. To me they have different meanings.
This is an interesting thought.
I think the Bible certainly does speak of rights. Without getting into what the hebrew and greek words mean (which I'm not qualified to do anyway) there are numerous instances that many English Bibles translate as "rights." Some proverbs: "A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge."
"Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy."
Or Jeremiah 5:28, "they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of evil; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,and they do not defend the rights of the needy."
These verses speak to the specific Israelite laws that instituted certain rights that the weak in society had, whether the reaping law, tithing provisions, year of jubilee, etc. They were not privileges or anything of the sort. They were rights. And it also speaks to a more general principle that there are universal rights, especially protecting the weak, that ought to be adhered to. When they're not followed it dishonors God. If the poor are being oppressed, for example, it makes a mockery of their status as bearers of God's image. I think that fact needs to be balanced with, as you said, we are all sinful and deserving of wrath.
It is more complicated for us, however, because we're not a theocracy nor do we want to be. For Israel, the phrase "God given rights" made quite literal sense. For us I think its more of a mixture. Many of our rights are things that we have simply agreed upon as a society to grant ourselves. But hopefully most of them flow out of the basic rights God grants us. That's my two cents.
The Bible does not speak of rights in the terms of the American concept. America was founded on principles of the Enlightenment. Kant taught that everyone has the capacity for moral reasoning and every human has rights.
Christians find the best parallel to the idea of rights with the idea of imago dei (being made in God's image). This is a reason that supports the idea that every human has rights.
Personally, however, I think that "rights" are set aside in the Bible. In Phil. 2, Jesus had the right to stay in heaven and have a great time, but he chose to die a humiliating death on the cross and set aside his rights in sacrifice for us. We are called to follow his model.
My take: rights are a good outlook on issues of justice, but a bad inward posture. If we think too much about our own rights we are not living into the call to live sacrificially and set aside our rights for God and for others. (However, my logic becomes faulty if we are victims of injustice such as abuse or a systemic sin. Obviously, someone needs to fight for the human rights of the sex slave 14 year old in Thailand).
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