Natural Rights, Liberty, and Responsibility

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Natural Rights are the possession of the citizen, given by God. God, and individuals, existed before government, therefore government has no claim on rights. The Bill of Rights uses language not asking government to guarantee our rights, but telling the government hands off our rights. If government is the greatest threat to our rights, why would the founding fathers desire for government to be the guarantors of those rights?

Rights are an entitlement by God, self-evident, and unalienable. They are ours to defend, protect, and demand.  The greatest risk to our rights is government, not other individuals.

With our rights comes the responsibility to protect them. As with any other possession, it is our duty to safeguard our rights, while ensuring our rights do not interfere with another’s rights. Rights do not demand, nor use tyranny to demand their existence. They exist because we do.  Our responsibility to protect our rights means that we must be politically involved to ensure government remains limited, and has no opportunity to interfere with our rights.

As with an intersection and the right to go through it, government may provide certain protections like a stop sign or stop light, but our right to go through that intersection must remain in place.  Same with rights.  While laws at the local level may be created that may be necessary and proper, the infringement upon our rights in a complete manner is still forbidden. . . not because of a constitution or a bill of rights, but because those rights belong to us as a result of God endowing us with them.

We have a right to make a life for ourselves, and protect the possessions that we accumulate with that labor. A good life is a privilege we attain by using our right to work for it and protect it. A good life, itself, however, is not a right, nor is it something government must be required to give. . . especially by taking away from others.  While we are equal, we are not equitable.  While, in God’s eyes, and the eyes of government, we are all equal at the starting line, it is our own business how we get to the finish line, and at what position we are at that place.

A good life is not only achieved by hard work and good planning, but by being frugal in one’s lifestyle. Any economy can only be successful if it is waged within its means. More going out than coming in can only end in disaster if not corrected soon.  Being thrifty is a virtue.

One’s rights, and the appreciation and consideration of other’s rights, are the foundation of a strong social order, which can only be achieved if the society is virtuous. Without virtue a culture cannot be godly, and without godliness a culture is destined to destroy itself from within.

A virtuous society is honest, and the people judge each other only by the content of one’s character.  A virtuous society is populated by individuals who are self-reliant, personally responsible, and conscious of the rights of other individuals.

Through self-reliance, personal responsibility and hard work, individuals become prosperous, with spreads to the community, making the community itself prosperous. Prosperity, however, always begins with the successes of individuals.

Which all begins with Natural Rights, each of which are a possession of the citizen, given by God.

– Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary