Human rights endowed by the Creator

I made the mistake of watching some talking heads on a mainstream news channel the other day. When will I learn? My wife’s not holding her breath.

Anyway, there was a panel discussion on the scary, new political faction on the scene. Religious zealots have arisen out of nowhere, apparently. The news has dubbed them Christian Nationalists.

A pearl-clutching lady pointed out one of the horrifying doctrines of this group. These cultists think that our rights come from God, and not from any government.

You may have to read that sentence again. Those crazy religionists!

Now, it’s been a long time since I sat through a civics class, granted. I could be remembering wrong, but I’m pretty sure the Declaration of Independence had something to say about that: Something about a Creator endowing everybody with certain unalienable rights.

Apparently, we’re at the point in America where that is seen as a dangerous, radical idea. It must’ve sounded treasonous back in merry ol’ London. Were all the signers of the Declaration Christian Nationalists?

The only other working theory of rights is that they are granted, regulated, and abolished on the whim of a centralized government. So, then, for instance, your right to life or to private property is no stronger than the shifting sands of political opinion. And this is dependent on which lobbying group has purchased your senators.

It’s the “land of the free, and home of the brave,” until the elected grifters tell you it’s not. Or, more accurately, until you realize the whole thing was sold down the river generations ago.

Atheistic theories of authoritarian government (such as the one we live with) cannot provide any sure foundation for rights, or human flourishing, any more than they can justify their use of terms like good and evil, or right and wrong. As one, classic atheist has said, “If there is no god, then nothing matters.”

The Bible, on the other hand, gives us solid ground for maximizing individual liberty. You have a right to life. How do we know? Because God tells everyone else not to murder you. We know you have property rights. How so? Because it says, “Thou shalt not steal.” (If it wasn’t really yours, it couldn’t be stolen from you.)

Since God gives no government the right to coerce you into faith (as if that was possible) and no right to punish your thoughts, your right to religious freedom is secured.

When the newspeople sitting around the table practically needed smelling salts to avoid fainting over these things, it told me something. The idea of religious faith is completely foreign to them, for one. I can only imagine the insulated bubble they live in.

They’ve heard of people who think God is real through second or third-hand accounts over martinis. That’s when all the cool people throw back their heads and laugh.

Two, they assume these beliefs are politically threatening, that everyone holding to them is trying to take over. In large part, this is an exercise in projection, as they themselves can’t imagine believing in something that doesn’t grant them power over people. That must be what these kooks are after since that’s the only thing worth striving for.

Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at:

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