politics: alienable 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."- The Declaration of Independence

Typically, if a writer quotes one of the Founding Fathers or founding documents of this great nation the purpose is to prove that the Founding Fathers in their infinite wisdom agreed with whatever point the author is trying to make. I have seen this done many times by people on the Right and on the Left in the political arena, and I have also seen it done by pundits, preachers, non-profits, and anyone else who is selling an opinion.

I have a different question for Christians, though. Why do we put the writings and opinions of fallible people nearly on par with Scripture, even if they helped found one of the greatest nations ever established? Patriotism is good when it involves paying honor, respect, and obligation due to our nation as the one under which God placed us. It is bad when our love of the nation or certain national ideals is in conflict with Scripture.

While I love my country and believe it is the greatest ever established (possibly second greatest to David's Israel) on this earth, I also acknowledge that its founding principles are not all Biblical. As a Christ-follower before I am an American, I have to refuse any American principles that contradict Christian principles.

In this case, the sentence above from the Declaration of Independence describes very accurately the underlying philosophy of our nation that all men are created equal and that certain rights are unalienable. The first part about all men being created equal is very Biblical (Gal 3:28). Unfortunately, that is where the Biblical agreement ends. The second part about unalienable rights is contradicted many places in Scripture as illustrated below.

The following passage is regarding the rights to life and the pursuit of happiness. The rich man had neither the right to live beyond his appointed time nor the right to pursue happiness in the way he saw fit.

"Then [Jesus] said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.' And he told them this parable: 'The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, "What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops." Then he said, "This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.'" But God said to him, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself ?" This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.'"- Luke 12:15-21

Jesus also more explicitly demanded that His followers relinquish their right to life in the following passage.

"Then [Jesus] said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?'"- Luke 9:23-25

Another passage regarding our non-existent right to life is from Psalm 44. Paul quoted this in Romans 8 to essentially say that we might face death, but even that cannot separate us from the love of God.

"Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path. But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals and covered us over with deep darkness. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."- Psalms 44:18-22

This next passage is regarding liberty. There is no such thing. We are either slaves to sin and death or slaves to righteousness and God. The only true Christian freedom is freedom from sin rather than freedom from dictatorial authority.

"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."- Romans 6:15-18

A proper response to the previous passage may be that liberty in a political sense is different than liberty in a spiritual sense. Even if this is the case, which is not a position that I hold, we don't have the inherent right to political freedom either. This passage should also offer some discomfort for those of us who believe that some revolutions have occurred for good rather than evil.

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor."- Romans 13:1-7

Regarding the pursuit of happiness, is there anyone who truly reads the Bible with the intent of understanding it rather than cherry-picking verses who actually believes that pursuing happiness is a Christian right? Paul's following words to Timothy regarding people who are "lovers of themselves" and "lovers of pleasure" should dispel that notion if anyone actually has it.

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."- 2 Timothy 3:1-5

Finally, James hit on all three of these inalienable rights in the following passage. God has the right to, and may, take our lives tomorrow. We do not have the liberty to stake out our long-term plans apart from God, especially as it relates to fulfilling our wants.

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'"- James 4:13-15

Seriously, this is something that I could do for days with passages from all of the major sections of Scripture if I was willing to commit the time to do it. There is no shortage of Bible passages that imply or outright state that these unalienable rights are very alienable for the sincere Christian.

I feel compelled to restate my point in this. I am not attempting to denigrate the great nation to which I owe so much. I am attempting to establish that the Founding Fathers were entirely capable of contradicting Scripture, and so nothing they said should be considered to carry equal weight with Scripture. On occasion we will have to make the choice whether we will accept national and cultural philosophies as our own worldviews even when they contradict Scripture. For my worldview, God's Word has to trump all else.