My Pledge to Tim Kaine + Why Our Rights Come from God

We don’t have to live like this, or respect office holders who fail to respect the framework of the freest nation to ever exist.

What I’m going to discuss today is something of importance that has been shoved aside thanks to this week’s tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk. As I pondered this article, I realized the two items (what I plan to write about and Kirk’s shooting) are intertwined, and the reckless comments of U.S. Senator Tim Kaine must be forcefully addressed. In case you missed Kaine’s September 3 comments, he criticized the fundamental American belief that our rights come from God Himself:

“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.”

Kaine, in likening America to a radical theocracy, misses the mark badly. The standard conservative response to this error is to remind the one in error that if government is indeed in the business of bestowing rights upon the people, then government can most certainly assume the business of stripping rights from the people. Our nation was forged in the fires of violent revolution over, quite frankly, issues far less severe than we face today. The early revolutionaries raised hell in Boston Harbor over a tax on their breakfast drink of choice. Today, we never truly own property thanks to property taxes, suffer under heavy income taxes (not even conceived of during the time of the founding, and are seen as a dumping ground for the rest of the world’s charity cases and problems. I could go on and on, but want to make myself clear on the points that matter.

Here is my pledge to you:

· I will not honor a government that believes our rights come from laws written by man, rather than laws written simply to affirm our God-given natural rights

· I do not consent to the passage of any law violating the above

· I will never surrender my God-given rights, no matter what a politician in a suit or an officer with a badge says

We honor God by defying tyrants.

The founders learned from the failures of their English countrymen from centuries leading up to the American Revolution, creating a system of government that has stood the test of time, but now trembles under an onslaught of weaponized lawfare, crafty manipulation, and a focus on the letter, not the spirit, of laws drafted long ago. Laws suffer under interpretation – freedoms and rights are timeless and do not change over time or in the face of adversity. This, Mr. Kaine, is why Americans believe, or should believe, our rights come from God:

· Man is made in the image of God, meaning he has an imperishable soul that lives forever

· Because man is made in the image of God, he has dignity

· Because man has dignity, being made in the image of God, he is worthy of rights

· Those rights include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and all the things that go into making human flourishing possible

Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the right to keep and bear arms, protections against unlawful search and seizure, due process – this list goes on and on and includes things that are now obsolete, but were anything but at the end of the 18th century, such as the right to not be forced to quarter troops. These rights protect man from the abuses of government, though they do not necessarily protect men from each other or guarantee that an angry employer who can’t take your free speech won’t cut you loose in a manner that is unfair, but not necessarily unlawful.

Thomas Jefferson said, “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”

When Charlie Kirk named his organization Turning Point USA, no one could have known how his life and impact would unfold, or how his Earthly life would end. Indeed, this moment may reflect a “turning point” in American history, as normal, everyday Americans who don’t take part in the debate over freedoms, but may vote when the time comes, awake to see the monsters that the schools, media, and radicalized governments have created, who have no issue cheering the demise of someone who died using words to make arguments against people with whom he disagreed. It makes no difference to them that his wife and children were in attendance, or that his actions drew young people into the political arena. Those are the people who don’t believe God granted us rights.

In the past two days, the forces of evil gathered on the American left have circulated these words of Charlie Kirk: