Bishop Barron Rebukes Virginia Senator Tim Kaine After He Claimed Rights Derive From Government
Virginia Senator and former Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine recently claimed that rights derived from government and he was promptly rebuked by Bishop Barron.
During a recent Senate hearing Kaine stated, “The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator that’s what the Iranian government believes. It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Shia law and targets Sunnis, Bahis, Jews, Christians, and other religious minorities. And they do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their creator. So the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”
Tim Kaine, who claims to be a Roman Catholic, was rebuked by Bishop Barron who responded to his comments saying, “I just feel obligated to speak out against something that I came across today and I just found it so outrageous and really dangerous to our democracy. It was Senator Tim Kaine at a Senate confirmation hearing, and he was actively contesting the view that our rights come from God, and not from the government. And he said that’s very dangerous if you claim that our rights don't come from laws or government.”
“But what struck me was he's a senator from Virginia. Virginia was the state of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, both of whom took it as fundamental to our democracy that our rights don't come from the government. They come from God,” he continued. “So we know the familiar words of Jefferson, right, that we are created equal by God, we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. You see, so basic to Jefferson was the fact that rights come first. They're not invented by the government. Rather government exists — and remember this language from the prologue of the Declaration — to secure these rights. It doesn’t invent them. It doesn't ground them. It secures them. It recognizes them as objectively coming from God, and then its whole purpose is to secure them, to serve them.”
“Think to of that familiar word from Jefferson: inalienable. These rights are inalienable. Now, why? Because they come not from the government, but from God. If the government creates our rights, it can take them away. If the government is responsible for our rights, well then it can change them. You think this never happens? You don't know much about the history of the 20th century. Look at the great totalitarian systems of the 20th century that followed from the denial of God and denial of rights coming from God. And so those rights became eminently alienable whenever it served the purposes of the government. “
It just strikes me as extraordinary that a major American politician wouldn't understand this really elemental part of our system. God help us. I mean that literally, God help us, if we say our rights are coming to us from the government. That gives the government, indeed, God-like power,” he said. “We are, this is not pious boilerplate, it's basic democracy. We are a nation under God. Lincoln says in the Gettysburg Address that ‘this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.’ Again, that's not just pious decoration. That's a very important political statement.”
“We are a government that recognizes the objective rights that come from outside of government. Government exists to serve them and to secure them,” he reiterated. “Well, the fact that this rhetoric — and it's popped up elsewhere too in recent years, I spoke out against it a little while ago — is troubling because it's a fruit, I would say, of the increasing marginalization and privatization of religion, if not outright hostility to it. But see everybody, religion is elemental, it's basic to our democracy. So I'm speaking out against this statement that I think is really dangerous both as a Catholic bishop and as a proud American who is very happy to follow Thomas Jefferson. God bless you.”
Bishop Barron was not the only one to rebuke Kaine. Philosopher Edward Feser shared his thoughts as well. He said, “Among the many remarkable things about this is that Kaine is not only essentially saying ‘Your rights don’t come from God, they come from decisions made by people like me,’ but also seriously thinks this is something people will and should take comfort in.”
Francis Joseph Beckwith, a Philosophy Professor at Baylor also observed, “Weird that the example he uses undermines his point. If rights come from gov't, and the Iranian gov't persecutes religious minorities, then according to Kaine it can't be wrong. But by saying it is indeed wrong, that means that the origin of their rights is not gov't.”
Correct, but I think it's even more sinister than that. I think he was deliberately lying to groom the American people into believing that, the same way they began grooming people to call us a democracy, and we are not, we are Constitutional Republic. That grooming began 2 years ago and now we have lots of people saying "our democracy".
Never expect a liberal to make any sense. They say whatever and promote (whatever) as an answer because it is the groupthink of the moment - which can change.
Not only is the bishop correct (and good for him), but I'll go one step further along the path of history.
Our Constitution and Bill of Rights wasn't about limiting the people, but the people limiting and granting certain limited "rights" to the government.