Originally posted on September 2, 2019
All people have rights—inalienable rights—to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The abridgement of some of these rights is obvious:
- One person kills another, thus depriving the victim of the right to life.
- One person kidnaps another, thus depriving the victim of the right to liberty.
Other abridgements are harder to identify. When an employee has filed a grievance with the employer, does the employer who threatens an employee with termination or other sanctions then abridge the employee’s right to liberty? Our government has enacted whistleblower laws to protect against that type of retaliation. Retaliation may still occur. Discrimination in hiring practices, though illegal, may still be active. Building enough evidence of these practices can be difficult, though. Still, does it not constitute an abridgement of the victim’s right to liberty by creating a hostile work environment, or by restricting the ability to fill an employment position for which the victim meets all listed qualifications?
The most difficult inalienable right for American Christians to deal with is the right to pursue happiness. Our culture seems to focus on this right. Marketers identify areas where consumers must be unhappy, or where they could be happier. Some activists argue that theirs is the only way by which long-term happiness can be obtained. Others rail against anything that calls their pursuit of happiness into question. Corporations seem to value this right for their stockholders and CEO’s, while infringing upon this right for their lower-tiered employees.
For the church, the problem goes even deeper. The American culture is individual. The church culture is communal. Americans are taught to defend their rights; Christians are encouraged to give up their rights to benefit others. “No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 – New English Translation). Again, “Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself” (Philippians 2:3 – NET).
The way I see to reconcile this is to work for the freedom to exercise our individual rights, but to exercise those rights sparingly. Politically, the government is forbidden to create laws that infringe on our rights. Yet, we see that our rights have been impacted by the government under the pursuit of national security. As Christians, or as Americans, can we stand idly by?
We are to honor our leaders, as I stated in my introductory post. If that government begins to enslave the governed, should we not work to obtain our freedom (1 Corinthians 7:21)?
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