{"id":2482482,"date":"2025-09-04T15:29:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tim-kaine-thinks-youre-a-terrorist-if-you-believe-rights-come-from-god\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T15:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:31:32","slug":"tim-kaine-thinks-youre-a-terrorist-if-you-believe-rights-come-from-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tim-kaine-thinks-youre-a-terrorist-if-you-believe-rights-come-from-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Kaine Thinks You&#8217;re A Terrorist If You Believe Rights Come From God"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftim-kaine-thinks-youre-a-terrorist-if-you-believe-rights-come-from-god%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2482482&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article addresses a statement by Senator Tim Kaine, who claimed that believing in rights derived from the Creator equates to terrorism. The author refutes this by explaining that the idea of natural rights granted by a Creator-rather than by government-is a foundational principle of the American Republic, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence. These rights are understood as pre-political and worldwide, grounded in natural law, a concept shaped by Christian theology, especially the teachings of Thomas Aquinas. The Founders viewed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/knowles-culture-can-be-downstream-of-politics\/\" title=\"KNOWLES: Culture\u00a0Can Be\u00a0Downstream Of Politics\">legitimate government<\/a> as one that protects these unalienable rights, contrasting it with the divine right of kings-a theory they rejected. The article argues that Senator Kaine&#8217;s criticism misunderstands the ideology underpinning American liberty and the role of natural law and Christianity in the nation&#8217;s founding. Denying this foundational principle threatens the Republic&#8217;s core values and suggests a lack of fitness for public office.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.  &mdash; who was once nearly a heartbeat away from the presidency &mdash; declared Wednesday that if you believe in the Declaration of Independence you&rsquo;re a terrorist.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The notion that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-rejects-biden-request-key-administration-plan-remains-blocked\/\" title=\"SCOTUS Rejects Biden Request, Key Administration Plan Remains Blocked\">rights don&#038;rsquo<\/a>;t come from laws and don&rsquo;t come from the government, but come from the Creator &mdash; that&rsquo;s what the Iranian government believes. It&rsquo;s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Sharia law and targets Sunnis, Bah&aacute;&rsquo;&iacute;s, Jews, Christians and other religious minorities. And they do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator. So the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But the idea that rights come from God, the Creator, rather than the state, is neither radical nor foreign. It is the foundational principle of the Republic. The Declaration affirms this: <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Founders recognized that all people are born with certain natural rights that are pre-political and grounded in nature and reason. These <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >rights exist independently<\/a> of government or rulers and are &ldquo;endowed by their Creator.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This conviction at the heart of our founding was inspired by theologians like Thomas Aquinas, who recognized that God created an ordered cosmos, and that we can fully apprehend the natural law embedded in His creation through a combination of reason and revelation. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The natural law is nothing else than the rational creature&rsquo;s participation of the eternal law,&rdquo; Aquinas wrote. <\/p>\n<p>Natural law, therefore, binds all humans. And natural law <em>is<\/em> a distinctly Christian holding. As  <a href=\"https:\/\/founders.archives.gov\/documents\/Adams\/01-03-02-0013-0003-0014#:~:text=August%2014.,Ancestor%20groups\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Adams<\/a> wrote: &ldquo;Our great Advantage of the Christian religion is that it brings the great Principle of the Law of Nature and Nations &hellip; to the Knowledge, Belief and Veneration of the whole People.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong>[READNEXT:[READNEXT:<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/02\/27\/if-this-is-christian-nationalism-sign-me-up\/\">If This Is &lsquo;Christian Nationalism,&rsquo; Sign Me Up!<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As explained by my colleague <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/04\/lets-stop-repeating-the-liberal-line-that-america-is-a-proposition-its-not\/\">John Daniel Davidson<\/a>, the claim that &ldquo;all men are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pro-hamas-rioters-in-d-c-confirm-j-d-vances-perspective-on-america\/\" title=\"Pro-Hamas Rioters in D.C. Confirm J.D. Vance&#039;s Perspective on America\">created equal&#038;rdquo<\/a>; &ldquo;is a specifically Christian claim&rdquo; because &ldquo;God created all men equal, they all bear the <em>imago Dei,<\/em> the image of God [Genesis 1:27].&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This point was later reinforced by others.  <\/p>\n<p>U. S. Supreme Court Justice James Wilson wrote in his 1790-1791&nbsp;<em>Lectures on Law<\/em>&nbsp;that &ldquo;Human law must rest its authority, ultimately, upon the authority of that law which is divine [God&rsquo;s moral law in the Bible] &hellip; Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other. The divine law, as discovered by reason and moral sense, forms an essential part of both.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>President and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams (who was the son of John Adams), would later say in his July 4, 1821 address that &ldquo;From the day of the Declaration, the people of the North American union and of its constituent states were associated bodies of civilized men and Christians, in a state of nature, but not of anarchy.&nbsp; They were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>It was this very concept of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/for-society-to-survive-men-must-make-a-comeback\/\" title=\"For Society To Survive, Men Must Make A Comeback\">natural rights &#038;mdash<\/a>; rights that come from God &mdash; that led the Founders to declare independence&nbsp;and establish a republic.&nbsp;In doing so, they were making a break from the&nbsp;divine right theory of kingship, which had held sway in England since the time of Henry VIII and the Reformation, and returning to natural law as the basis for political authority. Divine right theory held that the right of the monarch to rule is derived from divine authority, hence the king is not subject to the will of the people, the nobility, the church, or any other estate of the realm. In addition, divine right theory asserts that the rights of the people come from the monarch, and can therefore be given or taken away by the monarch.&nbsp;The Founders recognized this&nbsp;theory violated natural law and&nbsp;they&nbsp;understood, therefore, that monarchy, or at least any monarchy based on the divine right theory,&nbsp;is an illegitimate form of government.<\/p>\n<p>They believed legitimate government, by contrast,&nbsp;protects and facilitates the enjoyment of natural rights of every citizen. That&rsquo;s why they called these rights &ldquo;unalienable.&rdquo; They knew that a legitimate government is formed when men recognize these natural rights, form a social compact on that basis, and create a government to protect those rights. When the Founders saw that the English crown was trampling on their natural rights, and that there was no other way to redress their&nbsp;grievances, they declared independence from the king.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, not all law comes from God or natural law. Some laws are indeed created by government &mdash; laws that are &ldquo;positive laws.&rdquo; These laws are meant to protect and secure everyone&rsquo;s natural rights.<\/p>\n<p>But Kaine&rsquo;s claim that rights originating from the Creator are &ldquo;troubling&rdquo; is a fundamental misunderstanding of the Founders&rsquo; philosophy and the Declaration of Independence. The Founders did not see natural rights &mdash; and their ties to Christianity &mdash; as a threat: they correctly saw them as the very foundation of liberty. To deny this is to not only misread the Declaration and the Founders, but undermine the very underpinnings of the Republic. Any politician who can&rsquo;t understand where our fundamental rights come from is unfit to serve in public office.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Tim Kaine said believing in the Declaration means you&#8217;re a terrorist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2482483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Tim-Kaine-scaled-e1757000812707.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[4439,5894,5579,6039,41831],"class_list":["post-2482482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-freedom","tag-politics","tag-rights","tag-terrorism","tag-tim-kaine"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Tim-Kaine-scaled-e1757000812707.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2482482"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2482486,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482482\/revisions\/2482486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2482483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2482482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2482482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2482482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}