{"id":238,"date":"2013-05-03T14:31:45","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T18:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godscomic\/?p=238"},"modified":"2013-05-03T14:31:45","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T18:31:45","slug":"rights-you-are-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/05\/rights-you-are-2.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Rights&#8221; you are"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the easiest phrases to roll off the tongue of an American is when speaking of our &#8220;rights&#8221;. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to freedom of speech based on the 1st amendment. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.<\/p>\n<p>I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to believe in whatever God I choose or no God at all. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to disagree with the decisions my government makes without fear of reprisal and the &#8220;right&#8221; to get rid of them if I think they&#8217;re doing a bad job. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to own property and the &#8220;right&#8221; to defend it.<\/p>\n<p>I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to marry whom I want and the &#8220;right&#8221; to be left alone in my own home without concern for government intrusion. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to travel freely from state to state without a passport or permission for the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Yes I have innumerous amounts of &#8220;rights&#8221; in the United States and we spend a lot of time and money trying to get more every day.<\/p>\n<p>The truth of the matter is we do indeed possess these &#8220;rights\u201d; what isn&#8217;t true is that all of them are intrinsic to our nature. No, the truth is we don&#8217;t actually &#8220;have&#8221; ANY rights in America, if in \u201crights\u201d we mean I deserve them or earned them. <\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;rights&#8221; we do have, have been given to us! The &#8220;rights&#8221; you have to speak freely was given to us by people who DIED speaking freely. The &#8220;right&#8221; you have to worship freely here without the concern for coercion or jail time was given to you by people who left their native home to hand us that privilege.<\/p>\n<p>The right to despise your government, AND more importantly publicly say so was given to you by people who fought and died, literally, to create a government that allowed itself to be challenged.<\/p>\n<p>I hate war but humanity has proven we can&#8217;t exist without it. You can protest war in America only because people who fought in war gave you the privilege. My point is that we should be beyond grateful for all the &#8220;rights&#8221; we possess as American\u2019s; but perhaps we should all be more careful about flippantly utilizing the word &#8220;rights&#8221; as though this is common to man.<\/p>\n<p>It should roll off your tongue with somber awe and dignity as though you have been given access to using the king\u2019s name in order to pass through hostile terrain. It should be honored by the weight of its presence. If you have the &#8220;right&#8221; to burn your own flag, it should be for that very reason that you never do!<\/p>\n<p> This is something that used to be called honor and yet seems only to be taught now to soldiers.<br \/>\nIt is only &#8220;right&#8221; that we never take for granted what most of us have been given simply because of the land our mothers inhabited as they gave birth.<\/p>\n<p>You see the Founding Fathers didn&#8217;t create our &#8220;rights&#8221; when they crafted the Constitution, they believed our rights came from God, thus they are immutable and sacred.<\/p>\n<p>We are watching these rights erode as those who say they believe in &#8220;equal rights&#8221; miss the discipline that demands that believing in equality means you don&#8217;t censor those who find your behavior immoral or harmful to the culture at large. The 1st line of the 1st amendment told this new Nation what the Founders considered most sacred as a people, freedom of conscience.<\/p>\n<p>Free thought without media derision or bullying is what gives us as Americans the single most cherished right in the world&#8230;Liberty.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, even though we believe that God created all men equal, it is left to us in this fallen state to honor that and instigate it whenever we can. Why? Because the Creator said that this is \u201cright&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the easiest phrases to roll off the tongue of an American is when speaking of our &#8220;rights&#8221;. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to freedom of speech based on the 1st amendment. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to believe in whatever God I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Rights&quot; you are - God&#039;s Comic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/05\/rights-you-are-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Rights&quot; you are - God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the easiest phrases to roll off the tongue of an American is when speaking of our &#8220;rights&#8221;. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to freedom of speech based on the 1st amendment. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to believe in whatever God I&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/05\/rights-you-are-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-03T18:31:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Stine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Rights\" you are - God&#039;s Comic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/05\/rights-you-are-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Rights\" you are - God&#039;s Comic","og_description":"One of the easiest phrases to roll off the tongue of an American is when speaking of our &#8220;rights&#8221;. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to freedom of speech based on the 1st amendment. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I have the &#8220;right&#8221; to believe in whatever God I&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/05\/rights-you-are-2.html","og_site_name":"God&#039;s Comic","article_published_time":"2013-05-03T18:31:45+00:00","author":"Brad Stine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/05\/rights-you-are-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/05\/rights-you-are-2.html","name":"\"Rights\" you are - God&#039;s Comic","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-05-03T18:31:45+00:00","dateModified":"2013-05-03T18:31:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/05\/rights-you-are-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/05\/rights-you-are-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/05\/rights-you-are-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"&#8220;Rights&#8221; you are"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/","name":"God&#039;s Comic","description":"God&#039;s Comic - Brad Stine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?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\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9","name":"Brad Stine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","caption":"Brad Stine"},"description":"\"Brad Stine is on a mission \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a mission to free us all from the chains of political correctness and prevent our eventual \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwussification.' From his Nashville stronghold, Stine is mounting his crusade against these hypocrisies, all of which are explored in his highly anticipated 4th album\/DVD, aptly titled \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWUSSIFICATION!' \"You know what offends me?... Offended people,\" says Stine. A staunch supporter of first amendment rights and foe of political correctness, Stine asserts that rights should be universally applied. \"In a country with guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, its citizens are constantly trying to make faith in public spheres illegal, I am offended by that contradiction and want to talk about it as a comic.\" The strength of his conviction about our freedoms can be found in many places on WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from \"Merry Christmas Too!\" (the right to celebrate religion) to \"At Least We're Not France!\" (the responsibility to take action as a country) to \"Spank\" (the ability to discipline our children the way we see fit). What would cause the wussification of Brad Stine? \"I hope that nothing ever wussifies me to deny my own personal beliefs,\" he says. \"Brainwashed wussies have been taught that standing up for yourself and defending your personal point of view makes you a close-minded hate monger.\" Stine stops short of defending his point of view as the ONLY one, adding \"...one must also be respectful of dissenting belief while supporting their own.\" He is, after all, an inclusive figure who trains his comedy to attack ideas, not the people who embrace them. Stine's faith forces him to acknowledge the respect and dignity of all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 even the wussies with whom he disagrees! Stine models his approach to comedy after legendary practitioners that he has known and loved over the years. Despite George Carlin's disdain for theistic beliefs, he has been a big influence on Stine. \"I always enjoyed Carlin for turning the tables on culture. He is an excellent writer that has endured for decades.\" More current comedic touchstones are Brian Reagan, Paula Poundstone, Jim Gaffigan and Monty Python, among others. Fear not, true believers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with his brand new album, Brad Stine is here to save the world from WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one politically-correct, offended person at a time!\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/author\/bstine"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}