Unalienable Rights: Charlie Kirk’s Legacy, Tim Kaine’s Blind Spot

When U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said at a recent hearing that our rights come from government—not from God—he exposed a dangerous belief with deadly consequences.

We’ve already seen it play out in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Many are saying that because Charlie’s views were “offensive” he didn’t have the right to express them—and that it’s somehow justifiable to gun down a man in cold blood for exercising free speech.

This is exactly what happens when people believe rights come from the state or from popular opinion instead of from God. Kaine, a professing Catholic, dismissed the idea that rights come from God as “what the Iranian government believes”—a theocracy. He’s not entirely wrong, but the character of the God we worship will determine the kinds of rights we recognize and protect. A regime that worships an arbitrary, capricious god will trample human dignity. But the Judeo-Christian tradition gave the world something radically different: the conviction that every human being possesses certain rights—not because of government decree, but because of the God in whose image we are created.

Maybe Kaine needs to read his Catechism: “There exist certain rights which are universal and inviolable. These rights are not conferred by positive law; they are inherent in the human person and in human dignity” (CCC 1930). And of course, the Declaration of Independence echoes this truth: “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.” Our nation’s very foundation rests on the recognition that rights come not from government, but from God. Our rights are prior to government—they exist before any constitution, court, or legislature. The role of government is not to create rights, but to recognize and protect what God has already given.

At the heart of our God-given rights is the right to life—which Charlie defended so boldly. Deny this, and all other rights collapse. This is why the Founders placed life first when they declared our rights self-evident and unalienable. Yet Senator Tim Kaine insists: “I have a personal feeling about abortion, but the right rule for government is to let women make their own decisions.” In other words, even the most fundamental human right is reduced to the shifting dictates of government policy, rather than the unchanging truth of rights grounded in God. 

Here’s the bitter irony: those cheering Charlie Kirk’s death can only do so because their right to speech—even hateful speech—exists within the very framework of God-given rights that Charlie defended. They claim the freedom to condemn him, even to revel in his murder, but that freedom exists only because rights are grounded in something higher than human approval. In societies where rights flow from the state—or from any authority other than a benevolent Creator—such speech is silenced.

But if rights come from God, they are sacred—beyond the reach of government. They may not always be honored or protected, but we can assert them with confidence, even when they are under attack. And because rights come from a source higher than the state, they extend not only to popular views but also to those that offend or challenge prevailing assumptions.

Rights rooted in God are the only safeguard for all people, in every generation. If we abandon that truth, we hand our freedoms to the whims of politicians and mobs. Charlie knew this. He lived and died defending it.