Miss USA was Right about Rights
The newly-crowned Miss USA is already in the hot seat.
Kara McCullough, of the District of Columbia, is black, beautiful and brilliant. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry, with a concentration in Radiochemistry from South Carolina State University in 2013. While in college, she was a member of the school’s Honors College, the American Chemical Society, the Health Physics Society, the American Association of Blacks in Engineering and the American Nuclear Society. She’s currently serving as a scientist with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
So why is she under attack?
She had the audacity to suggest that healthcare was a privilege and not a right. And from a biblical perspective, she is absolutely correct.
So how are we to determine the difference between privileges and rights?
Every election cycle we hear politicians, especially those on the Left, inventing a new list of “rights” for each and every citizen. Following in the political tradition of FDR, they declare
the right to a good education…
the right to healthcare…
the right to own a home…
the right to a good paying job…
and the list continues to grow with each passing year. In fact, what decent person could argue against the pursuit of each of these noble political aspirations?
But herein lays the problem. None of the aforementioned political goals is properly defined as a “right.” When our Founders drafted our Declaration of Independence, they had a clear understanding of the meaning and source of the rights of all men. In the words of our framers,
“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…”
In fact, Thomas Jefferson went on to say, “We do not claim these [inalienable rights] under the charters of kings or legislators, but under the King of Kings.”
If a “right” depends upon someone else’s money, service or work it’s not a right. It is properly a called a “good.”
Take education for an example. People have the God-given right NOT to be prevented from pursuing a good education; however, they do not have the right to that education. Why? Because an education is dependent upon the labor of others to provide that training.
You have the God-given right to your own property, however, you do not have the right to someone else’s goods. Claiming the “right” to the property of another is called stealing!
Let’s look at the current “right” to healthcare. While this remains a noble goal, you’ll eventually have to rob, through taxation, or enslave some citizens through penalties and fines for non-compliance, to secure this “right” for others.
You see, rights are not entitlements.
When goods are required from someone else to secure your “rights” you can be sure that someone else’s inalienable rights are being violated.
According to Miss USA, “For one to have health care, you have to have a job.” Because if you don’t, you’ll be forcing someone else to pay for your “right” and that’s just not right.
Thank you, Pastor, for explaining this! I finally understand. This is something that has bothered me for some time along with the use of the word “deserve.”
I’m just confused why this is the issue your spending your time using your platform to combat. Biblically, people do not have the right to healthcare. Please read that sentence to someone hurting who does not know Christ. How does this kind of post and time spent fighting things like this help your call as a Pastor to lead people to Christ? I am so frustrated with American Christianity that often I end my days in tears. I think we’ve gotten some major things wrong and it just won’t change until we start to be different! I remember growing up hearing you often say ,”Separation of church and state was created to keep politics out of church not God out of politics”. I fear this kind of focus is politics in church and has nothing to do with God.
Very well written explanation. The last decade we have produced those who think they are entitled to any thing they want, of course at the expense of others. This is our education system poisoning the minds of our children.
Pam, Thank you for your reply to this blog post. I did not say that we should not care for those without health care or that we should not have compassion for those who are hurting and without hope. This is the role of the church. We must reach out to help the poor and needy. However, we need to stop confusing the role of individual believers with that of the federal government. My point was to clarify the difference between God-given rights and state created “rights.” Healthcare is not a right and when we allow the government to misuse that term we end up doing more harm than good. Good hearing from you! Love to you and your growing family!