What Do We Mean By "Equal Rights?"

I have received some questions lately regarding our use here of terminology such as "equal rights," "teamwork," and "church community." The questions were in relation to the idea of Communism, as to whether we believed in that kind of political system. We most certainly do not. It is in fact the very antithesis of our principles. So, what exactly do we mean by such phrasing?

1. Equal rights: Unalienable rights must be equal for everyone in society if they are to be unalienable at all. "Unalienable" means "not changeable" or "not transferable." If the rights were not equal, tyranny would be acceptable. A hierarchy would be established of people with more rights and less rights. There would be no way of determining which rights were whose, and anarchy would result. A synonym for "equal rights" is thus of course simply "justice."

When one believes as I do that rights come from God and are absolute, one cannot help but believe in justice and equal rights. It is the purpose of the government to protect us, and secure these rights as they already exist in God's Law. Government can positively NOT create or decide upon the existence of new rights.

Thus, the "equal rights" system of the Biblical worldview comes down squarely on the side of non-interventionism and smaller government, rather than on the Left's idea of big, all-"helping" government. While the Left in America would like a monopoly on the phrase "equal rights," their true system is very much of the opposite.

2. Teamwork: By "teamwork" and "working together" we by no means wish to demean people as individuals. As Ron Paul has said, most of the problems in America could be solved if we realized and categorized people as individuals, not as groups. We simply believe things can be accomplished much easier through a group with common principles and goals than through people working alone. The idea is not to micromanage each others' activities or create some sort of collectivist society, but contrariwise to encourage and support people in fact as individuals. We will thus help to complement and complete each other.

3. Church community: I have mentioned before that I thought the YCLA would become a kind of church community. Please note that I did not intend to imply that we were starting a new denomination, or creating a new collectivist organization. I simply meant that since we were believers and would be working together, we would more or less be being church. The church is supposed to be a community anyway. We are not putting down any existing church organization, nor are we expressing intent to do so. Our purpose is to encourage and mobilize.

Thanks a lot!


-R. Josiah Magnuson