Perhaps following Jesus is just
as likely to lead us to lay down our rights as it is to lead us to fight for
them. Allow me to elaborate on this
subject for a little while. There was a
song in our campus ministry that I absolutely loved in spite of having times
where I found it extremely difficult to sing the lyrics and mean what I was
singing. The particular lyric that I’m
referring to is something along the lines of, “I’m laying down my rights, and all
that is within…” and I can’t for the life of me remember the rest of that line
for some reason, maybe because it’s now 2:45am and I can’t think straight right
now.
I’m laying down my rights goes in
direct opposition to what we’ve come to appreciate and fight for in our country
especially, doesn’t it? We have been
raised to believe that if you fight for your rights, you will eventually earn
them. Our founding fathers declared
their rights, and started the Revolutionary War as a direct result of that
Declaration of Independence. They
referred to certain rights as unalienable rights, meaning they applied to
everyone. It took a while for this to
truly end up applying to everyone and not just white men, but they did eventually
get to that point.
One of my previous couchsurfing guests
informed me that he had made an observation about American culture during his
time spent touring the country for about a month. He said something along the lines of, “If
someone in America says something is their right, it is treated as something
which is considered almost holy and sacred.”
I laughed and totally agreed with him then as I do now. We do hold our rights very tightly and are
sure to never let them be treaded upon, either by our government or fellow
citizens.
A perfect example is the recent
legislation known as Obamacare. I happen
to be one of the few Christians I know that support the law overall. There is that one pesky part though about
requiring employers to provide their employees with birth control as part of
their health insurance plans. That has
caused quite an outcry among Christians, and rightfully so. This is clearly in contradiction of a right
to religious conscience. Personally, I
don’t have a problem with birth control for the most part, but I do respect
certain Christian’s views that they don’t believe in birth control. I happen to believe healthcare is also a
basic right, probably largely influenced by my time in Europe. This is unfortunately not the case in
America, in spite of the argument that everyone is treated if they go to the
ER. That may be true, but wouldn’t it be
a wiser use of our money if we spent a little more on prevention and allowing
people to see their doctors when their health is starting to slip as opposed to
letting it get so bad that they have to visit the ER in order to get treated?
Before I move on, I want to
suggest something that I think might happen over the next few decades. Much like this clause within Obamacare, there
will be future attacks on religious conscience and liberty. Now, I am definitely not a prophet by any
stretch of the imagination. I do
however, pay attention to how the media in particular treats Christians with a
few broad strokes that paint all of us in the same light as is used to describe
Westboro Baptist Church or the guy on the corner with the megaphone telling
everyone they’re going to hell if they don’t repent. That is obviously not fair and ironically
they refuse to paint any other religious group or any group period with such
broad strokes of the brush.
With this in mind, is it that
difficult to foresee our religious rights being slowly taken away? Atheists cry out for the separation of church
and state as do many Christians by the way.
How did marriage get through that little conundrum on a side note? A preacher who has nothing to do with the
government on any other level has to say, “By the power vested in me by the
state of _____, I now pronounce you man and wife.” What does state power have to do with
weddings that are based on the Bible or other religious texts?
In addition I have one friend in
particular who is insisting on getting married before she has a baby. This is obviously no problem usually, except
the fact that she’s an Atheist. Why in
the world would an Atheist want to get married is simply beyond me. She has informed me she wants the stability
of marriage, but I’m pretty sure you can have stability and security without
marriage and a wedding, right? The ONLY
reason I see for marriage is because of the Bible in my case or other religious
texts in other people’s cases. Outside
of those religious texts it doesn’t make sense in the slightest to get
married.
If you want stability, why not
just be with someone whom you trust will never leave you? Do you think someone who has nothing to do
with God on any other day of their life is really going to suddenly take a vow
that he/she made in the Name of God seriously?
Why would they take a vow in the Name of Someone in whom they don’t
believe even exists. That’d be the
equivalent of taking a vow in the name of a unicorn or a superhero, wouldn’t
it? Not to mention the rate of divorce
whether you are a Christian or an Atheist or whatever else in America. You’re seriously telling me that in spite of
having no belief in God whatsoever and even going so far as to say there is in
fact no God after all, you’re going to drop upwards of $50,000 on a wedding day
that has no real meaning outside of the Bible?
This simply sounds rather illogical to me. Who knows though? I’ve certainly been wrong before of course.
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