Are Our Rights Blessed by God, or Begrudged by Government?

Thomas Jefferson and the True Source of Human Rights

Anticipating the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence, speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson recalled: “We boldly proclaimed the self-evident truth that our rights do not come from government, they come from God Himself.” In 2018, President Trump likewise declared: “Our rights are not given to us by man; our rights come from our Creator.” And defence secretary Pete Hegseth recently stated: “Today we gather to…

Are Our Rights Blessed by God, or Begrudged by Government?

In the Western tradition human rights have been said to exist independently of the state because they have been based upon human dignity. Source