During a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on September 3, 2025, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) responded to a nominee’s observation that human rights come “from God, our Creator—not from our laws, not from our governments.” Kaine said:

“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… So, the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”

But if Kaine really believes human rights come only from government, his own arguments collapse. Consider Roe v. Wade. For decades abortion cheerleaders insisted it was a constitutional “right.” Then in 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe. By Kaine’s logic, that should have been the end of it. Government revoked the right, therefore it no longer existed. Nothing was “taken away.” Nothing was “infringed.”

And yet, Kaine did not respond that way. On his website and in speeches, he blasted Republicans for “ripping away reproductive rights” and vowed to restore them. That response only makes sense if human rights exist at a level above government—something enduring that lawmakers cannot just erase. In other words, Kaine appeals to a higher authority even while he is loath to acknowledge one.

What makes this even more stunning is that the very foundation of our American government rests on the opposite belief. The Declaration of Independence affirms that we are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” and that governments are instituted to secure those rights, not to invent them or take them away. To deny that is to deny the cornerstone of American liberty itself.

This is the fatal contradiction of the Left’s godless worldview. If government creates human rights, it can abolish them at will. What one court grants, another can take away. Human rights become mere privileges—temporary and fragile, dependent on the whims of politicians and judges. That is not liberty; it is tyranny dressed up in legal robes.

Because they come from God, no government has the authority to take them away. Strip away God, and human rights vanish into thin air. Nature doesn’t grant rights. Evolution doesn’t recognize justice. Survival of the fittest is no substitute for liberty. Only if we are created in the image of God can we speak meaningfully about inherent human rights.

That is why U.S. Senator Kaine’s position is not just inconsistent—it is dangerous. By rejecting the true source of human rights, he undermines the very foundation of freedom and places government in the role of god. And a government that claims the power to give all rights can just as easily take them all away.

And let’s not forget, the Founding Fathers declared these truths “self-evident.” Let us pray that a nation wandering in godless philosophies rediscovers the only foundation of true freedom.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me…”
~Jesus in John 14:6~

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
~2 Corinthians 3:17~

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,
and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
~Galatians 5:1~