Rights... ? Where's the logic?

It should surprise no one that this blogger is adamantly pro-life. You can peg this as a theological position, a political position, but the truth is it is simply the application of logic.

Either all humans have rights or no one has rights. Rights either exist or they don't. I posit that humans have rights. Rights limit the freedom of everyone by granting privilege to each. In other words, there is a dual perspective that frees the one who "possesses" or has the right by limiting the freedom of another by disallowing certain interactions that would "violate" or infringe the right held by possessor of that right.

As an example: If person A has a right to property and possesses some object, say "x", it would be a violation of A's right to property for person B to simply take "x" away from A. We term this particular violation "theft".

Similarly, Person A has a right to life. A is alive. If person B takes away A's life, B has violated A's right to life. We term this particular violation "murder".

From where do these rights come? Let's simplify the matter and say that these rights are endemic to all humans. Certain rights are said to be "inalienable". They are not granted by law or custom, they are proper to humanity itself. To be a human being is to "possess" these rights. They are part of the "dignity" of the human person. We might say they are "natural human rights".

I grant that I am not always the easiest person to explain certain principles. A finer mind could probably explain this basic argument much more clearly. However, I pray that the basic thrust of the argument is clear to my longsuffering readers. It is a matter of simple logic.

That said, view the video below and note the confusion when a matter that is of natural human rights has been misunderstood in quasi-political terms. The person being interviewed perceives the issue in terms of a political debate about freedom, or the imposition of a religious tradition on others.



It is in light of this muddled reasoning and the need for clear thinking that our community will celebrate 9 December (Feast of the Maternity of St Anna AKA the Immaculate Conception in the Byzantine Tradition) with a pro-life celebration Liturgy.