{"id":2849,"date":"2013-08-23T16:32:17","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T20:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/?p=2849"},"modified":"2013-08-23T16:32:17","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T20:32:17","slug":"where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html","title":{"rendered":"Where Does Our Right to Privacy Come From?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When citizens complain about the NSA snooping <\/a>like a peeping Tom, what is the basis for that complaint?<\/p>\n

Why is it wrong for the government to snoop into citizen’s lives? \u00a0 We all have an inner spidey-sense or moral imperative that says, “That is wrong,” \u00a0but can we explain why it’s wrong?<\/p>\n

If the highest ethic is safety and the government can best “keep us safe” through excessive snooping, than clearly safety would trump privacy? \u00a0 How should governments, lawyers, and judges address these issues? \u00a0 And is “because the constitution says so” a real answer to the question, “Why is our right to privacy an actual right?”<\/p>\n

Notice that the Declaration of Independence sought of to explain “WHY” they thought their actions were right, and where those rights came from when they said,<\/p>\n

Laws of Nature<\/span> and of Nature’s God<\/span> entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator<\/span> with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. \u2014 That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed<\/em><\/p>\n

Notice that the founders said we get our rights from the “Laws of Nature” and “Nature’s God.” \u00a0And these truthes are “self-evident” and are “endowed by our Creator.” (That’s the Jeffersonian version of my “inner Spidey-sense.” Another way to say this is, ‘Any fool knows this is common sense!”) Further, they explain that the role of government is to “secure these rights.”<\/p>\n

Our Creator gives us our right to privacy, life, liberty, property, presummed innocence, due process, and the pursuit of happiness. \u00a0This is so key because if we get out rights from our Creator, the government can’t take them. \u00a0If we are given our rights from the government or popular opinion, they could be taken or voted away. \u00a0 The founders knew that the best system for both the religous and irreligious among us was to secure rights directly from our Creator. \u00a0This “deist” worldview was common sense and common thinking for most of humanity’s history (regardless of religious differences). \u00a0The first major philosophical movement away from thinking our Creator was the source of rights came about the time of Fredrick Neitszche. \u00a0 Fredrick noted in his poem, “The Madman” that when you disconnect rights and morality from God, you eventually lose sight of which way is up, down, left or right. \u00a0 Here’s how he said it<\/p>\n

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; “I will tell you.\u00a0We have killed him—What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even Fredrick realized the major problem with the movement he advocated was the loss of the ability to answer the question “Why.” \u00a0 \u00a0We unanchor ourselves from the sun when we can’t articulate that our rights come from the “sun” (Our Creator). \u00a0Fredrick eventually lost his sanity as he came to grips with the reality of a world without meaning, purpose, rights, or objective reality. \u00a0His Christian mother cared for him as he sank into deep depression and darkness. \u00a0 His predictions were true. When you unchain the earth from the sun, you end up in an infinite nothing. \u00a0Not able to explain the “why” for anything beyond, “I think it should be.”<\/p>\n

We have a right to privacy because we get it from our Creator. \u00a0Individuals loan their powers to the government to protect these rights. \u00a0The government is to secure, not violate these rights -because that is the Creator inspired right thing to do. \u00a0 \u00a0The government can only violate your right to privacy, property, or presummed innocence if they have enough evidence that you are not innocent. \u00a0This is why government’s need a search warrant to come into our homes, tap our phones, or come onto our property. \u00a0 When government’s snoop on the innocence in the name of security, they have violated the moral law (The Law of Nature) and the rights given to those individuals by their Creator. \u00a0That’s where our right to privacy comes from.<\/p>\n

I address much of this and more in my new book “Godonomics” in the chapter, “What Would God Say to America’s Founders?” and \u00a0“What Would God Say to Karl Marx?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When citizens complain about the NSA snooping like a peeping Tom, what is the basis for that complaint? Why is it wrong for the government to snoop into citizen’s lives? \u00a0 We all have an inner spidey-sense or moral imperative that says, “That is wrong,” \u00a0but can we explain why it’s wrong? If the highest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhere Does Our Right to Privacy Come From? - Godonomics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where Does Our Right to Privacy Come From? - Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When citizens complain about the NSA snooping like a peeping Tom, what is the basis for that complaint? Why is it wrong for the government to snoop into citizen’s lives? \u00a0 We all have an inner spidey-sense or moral imperative that says, “That is wrong,” \u00a0but can we explain why it’s wrong? If the highest…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-23T20:32:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"chadhovind\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Where Does Our Right to Privacy Come From? - Godonomics","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Where Does Our Right to Privacy Come From? - Godonomics","og_description":"When citizens complain about the NSA snooping like a peeping Tom, what is the basis for that complaint? Why is it wrong for the government to snoop into citizen’s lives? \u00a0 We all have an inner spidey-sense or moral imperative that says, “That is wrong,” \u00a0but can we explain why it’s wrong? If the highest…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html","og_site_name":"Godonomics","article_published_time":"2013-08-23T20:32:17+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png"}],"author":"chadhovind","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html","name":"Where Does Our Right to Privacy Come From? - Godonomics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png","datePublished":"2013-08-23T20:32:17+00:00","dateModified":"2013-08-23T20:32:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/b94809cbc6e13eafdb08a63d1825e37a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/08\/where-does-our-right-to-privacy-come-from.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Where Does Our Right to Privacy Come From?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/","name":"Godonomics","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Chad Hovind","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/b94809cbc6e13eafdb08a63d1825e37a","name":"chadhovind","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5ce\/5ce450f147d7562d63fa6a7f70df8143x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5ce\/5ce450f147d7562d63fa6a7f70df8143x96.jpg","caption":"chadhovind"},"description":"Chad Hovind is Senior Pastor of Horizon Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from Moody Bible College in Chicago, majoring in pastoral ministry and communication. His love for ministry and creativity can be seen in many forms: leading teams, expository teaching, acting, and video production. He has served as pastor at two high-impact churches in Georgia: Cumberland Community Church and New Community Church. Chad received an M.A. in Ministry from Moody Graduate School in 2008. He loves volleyball, movies, and hanging out with his wife Beth and their three children.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/author\/chadhovind"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2850,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions\/2850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}