I recently watched last week’s opening Belmarsh tribunal testimony. For those not familiar with it, the tribunal’s purpose is asking questions regarding the war on terror for crimes against humanity. This war stretches back to Vietnam, and likely beyond. It’s scope includes many whistle-blowers such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. The recording can be found here.
I’m hoping the tribunal will be successful. It’s important all crimes against humanity be revealed and justice meted out. But I noticed something the longer I listened. Even if the tribunal is successful; it will still lose.
Why? Throughout the entire two plus hours of testimony, one phrase kept coming up over and over again. That phrase was ‘human rights’. The tribunal simply staked out a different spot on the same hill as those they argued against. A difference without any real meaning.
The Human Rights Fallacy
All rights have their basis in morality; morality that in turn is derived from the values and ideas we hold. Human rights have their basis in human ideas. Ideas often exhibiting at the same time the depths of man’s nobility and cruelty. A simple look at history reveals both. This occurs because man is not infinite. Man is finite. He is therefore an insufficient starting point for himself.
We see the pagan idea of virtue in man’s morality, which comes from Greek philosophy and elsewhere. Within this framework, virtue is simply a mixing of good and evil. Something just needs to be a little more good, or a little less evil, to be deemed good. This idea is where we get terms like the ‘greater good’ and ‘lesser evil’. It is a false pagan notion. One present since man ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Man listened to Satan and was deceived. How do we know when Satan lies? Every time his lips move. He is the father of all lies and deception. On the slippery slope of relativism, anyone can eventually turn good to evil and vice versa, because there are no absolutes.
Is There an Answer?
If man is insufficient, then what is the answer? Man simply needs something greater than himself that provides an infinite starting point. That reference point is God. He exists before creation, and God stands outside of time. He alone is a sufficient reference point.
Just think about the last eighteen months and all the covid related bunk. Hasn’t this experience simply been about getting man to remember who he is? Learning again to say no to the stupidity of masks, lockdowns, anti-social distancing, mandates, and the like. At least for some, our awakening from a deep sleep. One induced by Satan and his followers, in order to put us in a position where we voluntarily give up our place in creation. That shall not come to pass.
God created man in His image. Male and female we were created. God gave man authority over all the earth; to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue it. He gave us the natural right of dominion, and with it comes the obligation of stewardship. For God did not give man ownership of His creation, but merely the right to use it—because God loves us and wants us to thrive. We are His children.
From God’s act of creation, we have certain natural inalienable rights. These are good because God is the source of all good. These rights are negative as they are intended to repel us from evil. It’s no more complicated than that. So the first point is God providing us reminders to jog our brains again as to who we are.
Our Being is Only the Beginning
This brings me to the second point. Once man remembers his position within creation, then we must ask if there are any implications from that knowledge. I assert there is. All gifts come with a moral obligation. God’s gifts to us, including our natural rights, each come with a moral obligation. An obligation based upon love. We received God’s love in our creation and existence; we have a moral obligation to return that love. God’s love is grace.
Man can choose to refuse this moral obligation. We have the freewill to do so, but that doesn’t make it right. We have the same choice Moses offered the Israelites before they crossed the Jordan. They were given the choice between good and life, or death and evil. Moses urged them to choose life. It is the same today for us. For too long we’ve chosen death as a people.
The war we are engaged in today is bigger than any state or country. It is a war for humanity. The only way man will win is through not only remembering once again who he is—but choosing life by honoring God. Therein lies the irony within the Belmarsh tribunal. They’ve attempted the arguments for life, without acknowledging their source. It’s a disease we must choose to remove from our societies. It begins with each of us.
Shalom.
