Kerby Anderson

Sometimes the biggest scandal in Washington comes when a politician says the quiet part out loud. That happened earlier this month when Senator Tim Kaine heard something that he said made him nervous.

Riley Barnes was nominated to become assistant secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. During his confirmation hearing, he quoted and affirmed a previous speech by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that stated that “our rights come from God our Creator — not from our laws, not from our governments.” Barnes added, “We are a nation of individuals, each made in the image of God and possessing an inherent dignity.”

Senator Kaine found this troubling: “The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government but come from the Creator — that’s what the Iranian government believes. It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Sharia law and targets Sunnis, Bahá’ís, 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.”

I gave you his long statement so you can see that the reaction he received in the hearing or in the media was justified. As a senator from Virginia, he was essentially reacting to a paraphrase of the Declaration of Independence, written by another person from Virginia: Thomas Jefferson.

I might mention that he is not alone saying the quiet part out loud. Last year a commentator at Politico argued that believing that rights come from God rather than from Congress would make you a Christian nationalist. During this coming year is the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I recommend they read our founding document.