DMcFadden
Puritanboard Commissioner
After a frustrating week of often unbalanced and untrue media reports of the Indiana debacle over the RFRA, I started reflecting on the current rage over rights . . .
A culture addicted to freedom of choice can too easily slip into the sloppy thinking that leads us to confuse “rights” with “right.” What a difference one letter makes!
Having a “right” do so something must never be confused with it being “right” (or wise, or loving, or prudent).
I have a “right” to treat people badly, to lie and gossip with abandon, to drink myself to death, to cheat on my wife, to spew hatred, to avoid ever going to the dentist, and to invest all of my retirement money in the Lotto. Only a fool with the moral sensibility of a rutabaga would promulgate a moral equivalency between what is good, right, and moral and every fool thing I might have a “right” to do.
We live in a culture intent on expanding the “rights” of people to do things formerly forbidden as illegal or immoral. Now, however, in addition to such expansion of the moral and legal code into the realm of “rights,” it is not enough to permit diversity of choices in a pluralistic society. We are actually expected to praise those “rights” as “right” or risk being labeled intolerant and hateful.
You have a “right” to believe that 2+2 = 5. But, it still isn’t the “right” answer. I will uphold your right to be wrong. Just don't expect me to cheer when you are.
A culture addicted to freedom of choice can too easily slip into the sloppy thinking that leads us to confuse “rights” with “right.” What a difference one letter makes!
Having a “right” do so something must never be confused with it being “right” (or wise, or loving, or prudent).
I have a “right” to treat people badly, to lie and gossip with abandon, to drink myself to death, to cheat on my wife, to spew hatred, to avoid ever going to the dentist, and to invest all of my retirement money in the Lotto. Only a fool with the moral sensibility of a rutabaga would promulgate a moral equivalency between what is good, right, and moral and every fool thing I might have a “right” to do.
We live in a culture intent on expanding the “rights” of people to do things formerly forbidden as illegal or immoral. Now, however, in addition to such expansion of the moral and legal code into the realm of “rights,” it is not enough to permit diversity of choices in a pluralistic society. We are actually expected to praise those “rights” as “right” or risk being labeled intolerant and hateful.
You have a “right” to believe that 2+2 = 5. But, it still isn’t the “right” answer. I will uphold your right to be wrong. Just don't expect me to cheer when you are.