Inalienable Rights

Chuckle:  A Sunday school teacher asked: “What is it that we learned from Jonah and the whale?” A bright kid spoke up, “We learned that people make whales sick.” 

 

Quote:  “. . this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom . . .”  --Abraham Lincoln)

 

 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26 NIV).  The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (soul) (Genesis 2:7 NIV).  The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18 NIV). “Live as free men (people), but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil”  (1 Peter 2:16 NIV).

 

On July 4th, 1776, 56 men assembled to sign a historic document (the Declaration of Independence) that would plunge the 13 colonies they represented into a war for independence from Great Britain. It has been said that the Declaration of Independence is the promise to the American people and the Constitution is the fulfillment of that promise.

 

The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence reads: “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.” 

 

Inalienable rights are natural rights derived from natural laws which originate in the human relationship to God the Creator. These natural rights are often called “Inalienable” rights because they are not determined by laws or customs of diverse human cultures and governments. They are universal and cannot be restrained or repealed by human laws. On the other hand, legal rights are those derived from a legal system consisting of man-made laws. Such rights can be modified, repealed, and restrained by human laws. Inherent in the definition of inalienable is the truth that these rights cannot be taken away from one person and given to another. Each person is created equal with equal rights and freedoms.

 

The very nature of these inalienable rights led the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to see government’s role as the protector of these God-given rights and freedoms, not the grantor of these rights and freedoms. They saw governmental responsibility as necessitating the various amendments to the Constitution to clarify and protect our inalienable rights which are granted to us by God, our Creator.

 

“The chief duty of governments, in so far as they are coercive, is to restrain those who would interfere with the inalienable rights of the individual, among which are the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to the pursuit of happiness and the right to worship God according to the dictates of one's conscience.” –William Jennings Bryan   If you embrace the concept of inalienable rights, ascribed to God, you will likely agree that, in our society, the basic right to life is presently being legally denied to the unborn. This right to life is not being protected by the Government and/or our legal system; instead, government has taken the lead in abolishing this right. This begs the question: What other inalienable rights are being threatened today?  How about liberty/religious freedom?

Love, Jerry & Dotse