“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” [1]. The American experiment began with a radical idea: rights are beyond the reach of government, anchored in something higher than politics. Elsewhere, these notions lingered as philosophy; in America, they became reality. When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, he didn’t say that governments “grant” us rights. He declared that we are endowed by our Creator with rights that are unalienable. These were not just some flowery, nice-sounding words—it was a revolutionary claim about the very source of human freedom that endures this day, nearly 250 years later. This claim reframed the conversation around rights by changing the government’s role from the “giver” to the “guardian” of rights.
Additionally, the Founding Fathers were deeply aware of history—particularly the dangers of unchecked majority rule. James Madison, in Federalist No. 10, warned about what John Adams called “the tyranny of the majority” [2], where the passions of the moment could trample the rights of individuals or minority groups [3]. Take the Bill of Rights, for example. Even if the majority wanted to outlaw “unpopular” speech, the First Amendment stands in the way. And that’s where the constitutional part of our system becomes crucial. The Constitution doesn’t just outline what the government can do—it draws firm lines around what it cannot do, regardless of what the majority might want at a given time. It establishes the rule of law in America.
In a moral society governed by the rule of law, the will of the people empowers the government to protect their God-given rights. However, during a recent Senate hearing, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) claimed that the idea that rights come from God, not government, is a “radical and dangerous notion” and is an “extremely troubling” idea that only theocratic regimes like that in Iran believe [4]. He said this in response to a quote from Sec. of State Marco Rubio who said that “our rights come from God, our Creator; not from our laws, not from our governments,” [5]. When given the opportunity to walk back his remarks, Kaine instead doubled down, dismissing those who disagreed as holding views that he called “deeply disturbing,” [6]. The views of Kaine and others like him are what is “extremely troubling” to me. What would America look like if we followed these ideas? Without the moral and ethical accountability to God or the governed, history has shown leaders “deify” themselves and impose their will on the people without restraint.
A government that grants rights without accountability can just as easily revoke them, as exemplified by Mao Zedong in China, Türkmenbaşy in Turkmenistan, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, and the Kim Dynasty in North Korea. Perhaps one of the most well-known examples comes from the Soviet Union, officially an atheist state, which allowed for Josef Stalin to be elevated to the station of a “god-like” figure. His image flooded society in statues and posters, art forms portrayed him as the “father” or “savior” of the nation, free speech was silenced or censored to ensure compliance, and Stalin’s achievements were falsified and exaggerated to give him the illusion of near god-like power. In fact, when explaining her childhood, a little girl in the Soviet Union once said of Stalin, “They said there was no God, and I made my God of Stalin…He was just like a God,” [7]. The government ran every aspect of Soviet life and was accountable to no one–not the people and especially not God. In systems like this, the government becomes the “god” of its people.
Even when the government claims it is upholding the rights of its citizens, a nation without a moral foundation is at danger for exploitation. It’s important to remember that calling yourself a "republic" doesn’t mean much if there's no real rule of law behind it. Once again looking to the example of the Soviet Union—its full name was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Each “republic” had a constitution claiming to provide freedoms similar to those found in the U.S. Bill of Rights. It looked impressive on paper. But in reality, it was a tightly controlled, centralized authoritarian regime ruled by a single party—and at times, a single man. The USSR was a union of “paper republics” with no freedom of religion, strong censorship, and drastic consequences for opposing the party.
The United States of America was created to be more than just a paper republic. Our Constitution is based on a separation of powers, which creates checks and balances; however, the greatest check on government power is that they are, or are supposed to be, accountable to a higher power. In reality, all governments are accountable to God [8]. There are those who would challenge this belief and claim that government is the ultimate source of power behind our laws. If government is the ultimate source, that makes government our god with potentially disastrous consequences like in the USSR. In the words of President Dallin H. Oaks, “The United States Constitution is unique because God revealed that He ‘established’ it ‘for the rights and protection of all flesh…Our belief in divine inspiration gives Latter-day Saints a unique responsibility to uphold and defend the United States Constitution and principles of constitutionalism wherever we live”[9]. Part of defending the Constitution is defending the rule of law and the rights of individuals, both of which grow out of our belief in God. It is incumbent upon us, as citizens and children of God, to uphold these God-given rights and ensure that our government remains a protector of individuals, not a master over them.
