rights

i don't think i believe in unalienable rights.
at least, i'm pretty sure i don't like the modern american version of them.
right to choose, right to life,
right to privacy, right to liberty,
right to pursue happiness, right to marriage,
right to vote, right to health care,
right to this, right to that...
i see no end to claims of "rights" these days,
and i'm sick of the idea.
it has become unabashedly selfish;
perhaps it has always been intrinsically so.
i can see no love in it.
if unalienable rights do exist, they must be divinely endowed.
the only way a "social contract" can make an "unalienable right" is to qualify the definition of "unalienable" until it is meaningless.
for a truly unalienable right to exist, it must come from an eternal Authority.
it must be a gift, as life itself is.
it is grace.
and i see no grace in our modern claims of rights.
debates over human rights largely amount to "deserves"...
"i deserve better!"
"we deserve this!"
"they deserve that!"
there's no grace in giving people what they deserve.
rights have become justice without love.
i think very little of things lacking love.
besides, we truly only deserve very little that we want and very much that we do not want.
a demand for justice can be a dangerous request.
love must rule or we are in serious trouble.

so i don't believe in a right to life.
i believe in a divine command to love one another.
i don't believe in a right to liberty.
i believe in a call to be gracious and patient with one another.
i don't believe in a right to pursue happiness.
i believe we are to love God with our all, for He loves us all dearly.
and if we love Him, we must love those He dearly loves.

so take whatever hotbutton political issue you like,
ignore all the foolish bickering over so-called rights,
and consider, "God loves them, how can we do the same?"