Our rights come from God
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) September 5, 2025
Not government https://t.co/xi0GPWV81y
At 1:03, Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota's Diocese of Winona-Rochester argues that Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, believed
Rights come first. They're not invented by the government. Rather, rights exist- remember this from the prologue of the Declaration- to secure these rights. It doesn't invent them. It doesn't ground them. It secures them. Recognize them objectively coming from God and thus its whole purpose is to secure them, to serve them.
Barron's video was prompted by the response of Virginia senator Tim Kaine, who according to Fox News
was responding to the opening statement of Riley Barnes, who has been nominated to serve as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. Barnes noted in his statement that he agreed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent comments emphasizing the U.S. was founded on the principle "that all men are created equal because our rights come from God, our Creator; not from our laws, not from our governments."
Kaine argued
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, Bahá’ís, Jews, Christians and other religious minorities
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.
I'm a strong believer in natural rights, but I have a feeling if we were to have a debate about natural rights in the room and put people around the table with different religious traditions, there would be some significant differences in the definitions of those natural rights.
Those differences would be glaringly obvious, and it's highly unlikely that Muslim extremists, ultra-orthodox Jews, and far right Christian extremists,, sincere about their Christian faith or otherwise, would come to a meeting of the minds on anything significant.
God is all-powerful. If rights come from God, no man (or woman) could take them away. Evidently, someone forgot to inform Damascus or Pyongyang of the origin of rights. The US Department of State issues annual reports on human rights practices of some of the most repressive regimes in the world. From its 2023 report on Syria, we learned that
Regime-linked paramilitary groups reportedly engaged in frequent abuses, including massacres, indiscriminate killings, kidnapping of civilians, physical abuse, sexual violence, and unjust detentions. Regime-aligned militias reportedly launched numerous attacks that killed and injured civilians….
Elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces reportedly engaged in abuses, including abuses involving attacks striking residential areas, physical abuse, unjust detention, recruitment or use of child soldiers, restrictions on expression and assembly, and destruction and demolition of homes.
From its report the following year on North Korea, we read
Escapee, NGO, and media reports indicated those attempting to leave the country without permission could be killed on the spot or publicly executed.
Defectors, media, NGOs, and UN officials reported many prisoners died from torture, disease, starvation, exposure to the elements, or a combination of these causes. Guards at political prison camps were under orders to shoot to kill those attempting to escape.
The state forced private citizens to attend public executions. Escapees reported attending public executions on school field trips. Some media sources claimed public executions decreased during COVID-19 but increased significantly with the reopening of the border with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Rights come from government. So do the lack of rights. Perhaps the fiction Bishop Barron and Senator Lee claim to believe would be credible if human rights were as lacking in every country. However, we know that's not true. While Syria and North Korea generally are ranked as the least free societies, Switzerland was given the highest rating in the 2023 Human Freedom Index of the World Population Review. On its rating of civil rights and political liberties, Freedom House ranks Turkmenistan and South Sudan even lower than Syria, and at least six nations outrank Switzerland. (North Korea ranks nowhere on either list- is it possible to score a rating below zero?)
Whatever the criteria, regimes vary markedly in the degree of freedom they allow their citizens. Rankings will depend not only on the criteria, but also depending upon the year studied. And that is the point: the rights are not inherent in the human race nor even in the countries. They depend on the regime in power at any particular point.
As Bishop Barron knows- but evidently does not understand, Jesus Christ- as the author of Hebrews (13:8) in the New Testament reminds us- "is the same yesterday and today and forever." If the Son, then the Father and if the Son is the same eternally, so is the Father. Thus, it would be strikingly odd if God were to determine that the people of some nations deserve freedom and the others, oppression.
In 2006, Gazans voted Hamas into power in the hope of the latter forging a unity government with Fatah, the political arm of the Palestine Liberation movement. Instead, they've gotten a repressive, totalitarian regime entering the 21st year of its five year term. Surely, God has not decided to punish Gazans beyond even the oppression suffered in several Arab regimes.
As Donald Trump is busy demonstrating, the rights of people in even one country, as well as from nation to nation, can change dramatically. That is true even in the USA, regardless of the Declaration of Independence- which does not have legal standing. As the Bishop notes, its preamble declares "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Yet, "liberty" is an elusive concept. In 1857, one branch of the US government, the Supreme Court decided (in Dred Scott v. Sandford) decided that slavery was consistent with the US Constitution. Evidently, "liberty" was divisible. Alas, in 1865, a different branch (Congress) of the government decided that slavery was unacceptable and passed the 13th Amendment.
The Amendment modified the United States Constitution, an act of immense performance because (from Article VI)
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
This was not made subject to the Declaration of Independence, its preamble or anything in it; nor to the vagaries in interpretation of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." A couple of questions for Bishop Barron, Senator Lee, and others who hold to the same view. Is not a right to marry someone of the same sex or gender as oneself a matter of liberty? How about a right to bear or not bear children, as in reproductive rights? And isn't using any drug of choice- well beyond marijuana- a right to liberty?
It's a matter of opinion; or rather of statute and interpretation of statues by one branch or another of the government. Rights can be granted by governments and taken away by governments. If rights come from God, government- and the individuals heading it- obviously are stronger and more powerful than God. And that's a strange position for the likes of Bishop Barron, Mike Lee, and their fellow travelers to take.
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