Defining a “Civil Right”

ACLU and Transgender Rights

 

The ACLU website states “The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.” 

Perhaps our problem is our definition of a “right”.

I define a “right” as an inalienable gift from our Creator that doesn’t encroach on my neighbor to provide it.  Property, life and being treated equally under the law are moral rights and therefore must be protected by a just government.  A government is only legitimate to the point it defends inalienable rights.  Rights by nature are moral. They are ethical as they come from the Creator and precede government. The government is a moral entity that makes ethical decisions.

We separate church and State but we never separate morality and State. 

Law is a function of morality and morality is a function of religion. Change a nation’s religion to secularism and you change a nation’s morality and law.

Welfare, education and health care are not “rights” as they place a burden on our neighbor to provide them.  Being transgender is not moral as it violates the transcendent categories that precede government and are written into to our ‘OS’ (operating system) at creation, male and female. Since being transgender is neither moral nor ethical it doesn’t fall into the jurisdiction of legitimate government and cannot be referred to as a “civil right”.

I think we need to be careful not to confuse Martin Luther King with our neighbor positing “transgender rights”.  King upheld a transcendent that preceded government.  King upheld an ethical ideal. Our transgender neighbor does not. Shame on the ACLU.

The problem with defining and defending immorality as a “right” is that it not only denies our source of rights but denies His law/ethic.  Christianity tells me I’m a liar, cheater and stealer from birth. Should I then seek a law to protect my immorality? What type of neighbor do we wish? When a culture eliminates Christ it eliminates transcendent categories.  In the absence of categories law becomes associated with that which is “normal”. It reduces culture to paganism. If we define pagan values as “moral rights” how does one respond to slavery in the south?  It was normal to have slaves there. How does one address German Lutherans in WWII honoring the Sabbath on Sunday and loading Jews on Monday?  It was normal. Come to think of it a little rape and murder is “normal” in society.

Advocates for transgenderism ask me a question.  “What is it I fear?”

Here is what I fear. Tyranny.
The use of law to deny my natural rights. The use of law to plunder rather than defend me. When government is no longer moral, when government abandons defensive law by redefining rights it uses the sword to force me to submit to that which is unjust.

I fear the legislator making law that forces state schools to uphold that which is immoral. I fear a legislator forcing my business to turn a blind eye to immorality in hiring.  I fear a legislator requiring me to pay health premiums that force me to use my property to pay for procedures associated with immorality. I fear a legislator telling me whom I must rent my property to.

Was Washington correct?

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim tribute to patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness – these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. . . . reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.” – Farewell Address.