Rights, Reason & Responsibility

Over the last few months of 2020 I’ve happened upon more than the usual amount of articles (such as here and here) relating to “rights”, and how rights are normally linked to some type of responsibility or duty in relation to the common good. I suppose this is due to the recent buzz about fairness and equity in society which can easily turn into a discussion about “rights”.

You may have heard the expression that freedom is not doing what you want, but doing what you ought. This idea goes back to the Old Testament. In Exodus, the initial request for Pharaoh was to allow the Hebrew slaves to go free for only a three day journey, not to do whatever they wanted, but to worship & serve God (see  Ex 3:12,18 & 5:3). Eventually, the Israelites were given the right to inhabit the Promised Land, not to live anyway they liked, but to live in a way that would help fulfill the convent made with Abraham, which was to be a light to the gentiles as part of God’s plan in salivation history (see Gen 15:18-21).

Our concepts of right vs. wrong, good vs. bad and the common good are tied up in something that either ought to be, or ought not to be. For this concept to make any sense, you actually need an “ought”! For those who would agree, but add that the “ought” is something relative (relativism), it can be interesting or even fun to put them to the test. Tell them something like this: “Racism may be wrong for you, but it’s right for me” and then watch them self-destruct.

And so rights linked to an “ought” with a duty to the common good are proper for many things in life…

• The right to worship implies a duty to God
• The right to work and own property implies a duty to provide for yourself & others
• The right to vote implies a duty to participate in an election
• The right to bear arms implies a duty to protect people and property
• The right to marriage implies a duty to one’s spouse & the propagation and rearing of children
• Even the right to wear the uniform of the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs implies some duty to the team on the football field

As we become individualistic & relativistic, the common good no longer makes common sense. What I think is good for me and/or society may not be what you think is good. As a result, if enough people want something long enough and bad enough, whatever they want will eventually be referred to as a “right”. The concept of “rights” then becomes synonymous with “wants”, or whatever is desirable, with little or no connection to responsibility towards others.

• The desire to terminate a pregnancy becomes the right to an abortion
• The desire to be another gender becomes a host of transgender rights
• The desire for marriage as the personal gratification of two individuals becomes the right to same sex marriage
• The desire for non-procreative sex becomes the right to contraception (via insurance)
• The desire for justice for sins of the distant past becomes the right to reparations
• The desire to end one’s life becomes the right to die
• The desire not to be offended becomes the right to a safe-space, hate speech laws and the cancel culture

Wants are endless; and it is not possible to grant everything, so only the squeakiest wheels will get the grease so-to-speak. This attitude only leads to anarchy. If whatever is desired is not granted, it will be viewed as a violation of “rights”. Take this a step further and you’ll have the oppressors who say, “No” and the oppressed that don’t get what they want. Once a certain threshold of victim-hood is reached, anyone can rationalize the need to do whatever is necessary to make things “right” or “just”, including violence. I’m reminded here of the phrase “no justice, no peace”.

The only way out of this mess is evangelization. There are many ways to do it —or better to say—allow God to do it through us, but in my estimation there are only two basic paths…

• A long and difficult journey from the head to the heart (Faith & Reason)

“Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse;” (Romans 1:20)

• A long and difficult journey from the heart to the head (Love & Sacrifice)

I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” (John 13:34)

“Too many Americans, whether self-proclaimed “liberals” or “conservatives,” believe that what makes America great is that individuals get to choose their own idea of the good, untethered to the claims or needs of others, and then get it – as a right divorced from any obligations to others or to the common good.”

—Randall Smith