Sowing Wind and Reaping the Whirlwind

"Snow Storm: Steamboat off a Harbour's Mouth,"
by J. M. W. Turner. 1842 

I've lately begun noticing what the Bible doesn't say, and what was left unwritten impresses me just as much as what was put down. There's something smacking of divine inspiration when a man could write Romans 13 after suffering what he had at the hands of the Romans. Why not come right out and condemn things like the Roman Empire, emperor-worship or slavery? God's Word is the complete and authoritative guide to everything in existence, and yet there are things it doesn't directly address. This is because if everything was spelled out for us, there wouldn't be room for our faith and reason, and God created us to exercise free will.

Constitutions operate under a similar principle. Like the Bible, the Constitution of the United States is also notable for what it doesn't say, and these things it doesn't say are an important recognition of our God-given freedom. At only 7,200 words long, the Constitution is very short. Its brevity is a reflection of its wisdom. It recognizes that rights are preexisting in nature and in the states, and thus, instead of spelling out all our rights, it limits itself mainly to telling the federal government what it cannot do. "Congress shall make no law respecting..." The conception of rights found in the Constitution is one of "negative rights," meaning that it prevents the government from infringing on all the rights we as citizens are already understood to possess. Even though a right to pursue education or employment isn't found within the document, its only because its understood that human beings possess them intrinsically. The Tenth Amendment makes this point vividly: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

The E.U.'s constitution, on the other hand, totals about 78,000 words. Why so long? For one thing, because it's fundamentally based on humanistic assumptions. There is no God, therefore mankind isn't made in his image and doesn't have rights intrinsically - they're concessions from the state. Thus, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms (the equivalent of our Bill of Rights) is obligated to give a comprehensive list of all the rights its citizens may want or need. The long, dreary litany includes such things as the right to education, the right to affordable housing and the right of the handicapped to have accessibility to buildings, etc. etc. Unlike the U.S. Constitution, if a citizen of the EU can't find a right within his constitution, well, too bad. The state hasn't decided that he has that right.

Notice how insidious this can be. A right to healthcare? A right to education? Rights become entitlements under this kind of "positive rights" system - a system where people have the right to have a specific good or service. Now, don't get me wrong. All the "rights" I just listed are good things in and of themselves. People should have the right to be educated and to be able to buy a house. Here in the United States we have the same rights - even though they're not included in our Constitution, . We have the right to pursue affordable housing and education, but we're not entitled to them.

Why is Europe facing the most daunting fiscal crisis that's ever beset the modern world? Because the EU's humanism has created an entitlement culture of unprecedented size and scope. Since education, healthcare and many other things have become fundamental "rights," the state is now obligated to make sure every citizen has them. To this end, it's had to take over from the private sector the job of supplying education, insurance, food, clothing, housing and many other commodities. Think about the costs involved in that. We've all seen how inept government is at stimulus projects and the like, so how much worse must it be when it's effectively running whole swathes of the economy? No amount of taxes that an average citizen pays in can possible finance the individual entitlements he has to a "free" education, healthcare or social services. The only answer, then, is debt and inflation. In their quest to have all the benefits of civilization without recognizing its Author, nations of the European Union have sown nothing but wind, and now they are reaping the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7).