Rights vs. Privileges

While we in the Great State of California we are very privileged, we also have many rights. The state grants us these rights and privileges and we accept them eagerly. It occurs to me, we seem to have some cloudy thinking when it comes to “Rights.” 

Driving, as we learn in high school, is a privilege, not a right. The privilege can be suspended or taken away by the state at any time, if our actions create the provocation to do so. 

Life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness, for most of us, is a right. Rights, unlike privileges, cannot be revoked, (unless you happen to become a felon, then all bets are off).

Someone read in a book some time ago that marriage is between “one man” and “one woman” period. No discussion and no changes. The book, of course, was the Christian Bible. I’m not a big Bible guy and I think the folks who want to live by the dictates of their book are free to do so, as is their right. My problem comes up when their book dictates what rights I am free to exercise and what I cannot. Way back when this country was just getting started, the folks in charge made it clear that religion has no place in this new government. They even put it in the rules (read The US Constitution lately?).

Marriage - is it a Right or a Privilege? In this state, if enough people sign a piece of paper or mark a ballot, this simple “rite” can be made into a privilege and can therefore be revoked.

There are those who talk of the sanctity of marriage and that same sex marriage will destroy the institution. Given marriage survival statistics, I doubt that very much. 

An idea drifted into my head the other day. If marriage is so important why is it treated as a privilege? Is marriage now in the same class as driving, a privilege not a right? The arguers quote their Bible as their reason for not allowing same sex marriages. I would ask how a religious rite enters into the legal argument. The Bible is, after all, a religious doctrine and as such has no place in any legal argument. 

I would submit that it boils down to simple bigotry - not allowing someone else to exercise their rights because it doesn’t match their beliefs. Remember when it was illegal for mixed race couples to marry? 

I remember in grammar school when the teachers of the sixth grade got together and made a new rule: “Blue eyed people were now second class citizens of the school. They had to go to the back of the line at the drinking fountain and not allowed to use chairs in class.” Even in sixth grade we knew this was a dumb idea, let alone just plain mean. It only lasted one day but it made the point: discrimination is dumb and mean. 

Dare I say it? Discrimination doesn’t seem very Christian to me. Judge not.