We live in a time when we are more often at odds with each other over the question of whose “right” supersedes another’s “right.” Which one of my rights is supposed to give way to one of your rights is a alarming question. So as a result, people are developing heated opinions about which rights are more important than others. They are using their personal world views and value sets to make these judgments, and there are as many heated political opinions as there are people to argue about them. Sadly, these arguments are tearing at the fabric of our civil society, which is becoming anything but civil, and if we continue in this way the only resolution will be the dissolution of our union.
The good news is that there is a clear way to order liberty within society that allows for maximum freedom and civil stability. When trying to decide which rights give way to others, there is a guide we can consult that gives us a firm foundation, the Declaration of Independence, which orders our unalienable rights.
“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.”
1) LIFE: One person’s rights cannot deprive another person of their LIFE. The value of every life MUST be first. I believe that no right to life is held sacred in a society that will allow the lives of unborn children to be discarded. LIFE is also a right affirmed as an unalienable right in the 2nd Amendment which allows people the right of self defense and the defense of others whose lives are threatened.
2) LIBERTY: Ordered liberty must also place those liberties closest to our conscience as our first liberty. In the wisdom of our founders they ordered these liberties and affirmed them in the Bill of Rights. First among them was the free exercise of religion, freedom speech, and freedom of assembly. These liberties make up a complete freedom of conscience and the practice of belief. These liberties are ordered second only to the sanctity of life. Even these liberties cannot displace the first unalienable right of LIFE. Individual LIBERTY is also an unalienable right protected through the 2nd Amendment, an amendment which affirms the right of self defense and defense against tyranny. The rest of the Bill of Rights lend a complete support to the unalienable right of INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY.
3) THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS: Under this unalienable right falls all other rights with which children of God are endowed. The 10th Amendment secures space between the order a civil government must provide and the freedom the individual and his family needs to pursue happiness in a manner consistent with the dictates and desires of their own conscience. BUT held inviolate are those unalienable rights placed in higher order than these, the rights of LIFE & LIBERTY. One persons happiness cannot deprive another of their LIFE or LIBERTY without destroying the natural order of rights under God. No society can be truly considered a civil society that does not place the rights of LIFE & LIBERTY first among all unalienable rights.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, and yet today they are so often misunderstood and misplaced, that there is great need to expound the truths enshrined in our founding documents and understood by our founding fathers. Even the concept of equality in the Declaration of Independence has been so warped as to justify the infringement of sacred unalienable rights, the destruction of LIFE, and the strangling of LIBERTY.
We were CREATED equal and under God governments of men are bound to a sacred duty to protect the unalienable rights of its citizens through vigilant attention to ordered liberty and to the equal application of the law. It is this rule of law regulated by the proper ordering of unalienable rights that secures freedom for all.
A great many, if not all, of the dysfunctions within the attitudes of our citizenry, the regulations of our government, and the administrations of our institutions are a direct result of a misapplication of the principles of equality and liberty. It’s clearly time to stop arguing over every political issue or social outrage and start working to communicate and teach correct principles so once again our people can properly govern themselves.
3) THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS: Under this unalienable right falls all other rights with which children of God are endowed. The 10th Amendment secures space between the order a civil government must provide and the freedom the individual and his family needs to pursue happiness in a manner consistent with the dictates and desires of their own conscience. BUT held inviolate are those unalienable rights placed in higher order than these, the rights of LIFE & LIBERTY. One persons happiness cannot deprive another of their LIFE or LIBERTY without destroying the natural order of rights under God. No society can be truly considered a civil society that does not place the rights of LIFE & LIBERTY first among all unalienable rights.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, and yet today they are so often misunderstood and misplaced, that there is great need to expound the truths enshrined in our founding documents and understood by our founding fathers. Even the concept of equality in the Declaration of Independence has been so warped as to justify the infringement of sacred unalienable rights, the destruction of LIFE, and the strangling of LIBERTY.
We were CREATED equal and under God governments of men are bound to a sacred duty to protect the unalienable rights of its citizens through vigilant attention to ordered liberty and to the equal application of the law. It is this rule of law regulated by the proper ordering of unalienable rights that secures freedom for all.
A great many, if not all, of the dysfunctions within the attitudes of our citizenry, the regulations of our government, and the administrations of our institutions are a direct result of a misapplication of the principles of equality and liberty. It’s clearly time to stop arguing over every political issue or social outrage and start working to communicate and teach correct principles so once again our people can properly govern themselves.
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