Rights

[tansy]

Thanks for all your responses - I'm thinking then that rights are put in place, in order to protect people...and that is one reason they can be changed.
For Christians (and for that matter Muslims, Jews etc. who also believe in God), would you say that in Heaven, or when God's Kingdom comes to complete fruition, that there will be any need for rights?

 

[FedererFan]

No, it doesn't really make it harder to take rights away. The various Constitutional Amendments, some of which forbid the legal recognition of same-sex relationships in any form, is proof. All it takes is a majority who think that God doesn't like those people (they are unrepentant sinners).

But this presupposes that the ability to have a same-sex marriage is a right granted by God. Clearly they don't believe that. So they would say that the right to gay marriage is a right given to humans by humans.

 

[tansy]

But this presupposes that the ability to have a same-sex marriage is a right granted by God. Clearly they don't believe that. So they would say that the right to gay marriage is a right given to humans by humans.

Good point - actually, does anyone think that God has given humans the right to create rights?
And just because something IS a right, does that necessarily make that particular right, right?!
And how can rights created for the benefit of one section of society, be prevented from either causing harm, or conflicting with the rights of other sections of society?
It all seems very complex to me.

 

[Maren]

But this presupposes that the ability to have a same-sex marriage is a right granted by God. Clearly they don't believe that. So they would say that the right to gay marriage is a right given to humans by humans.

So just where are these "rights" in the Bible granted by God? The fact is that the Bible never states that people have rights, though it did provide some limitations as to what an owner of slaves could do to his slaves (but those are not rights but merely rules).

The things listed as rights in the Constitution (life, liberty, property) are not enumerated in the Bible, much less the various rights (such as marriage and privacy) that have been named as fundamental rights by the Supreme Court. Some of them may be called "sin", such as killing a person or theft, just like many other sins listed in the Bible yet depriving a person of liberty (making a person a slave) is allowed.

And the point isn't really that same-sex marriage is a right. Rather, the point is that something that has been judged a right (like same sex marriage was in California) can be overruled by a simple majority vote. And if it can be done to one right as defined by law, then any right can then be removed (even God given ones) by simple majority vote.