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In the past months, a major discussion has begun over the rights of government. With major contingencies on both foreign and economic fronts, government officials and average people are beginning to speculate whether or not our government has gone far from its purpose. What are the legitimate functions of government? From whom does it receive the right to perform those functions?

John Locke, an eminent philosopher of the 18th century, developed the concept of social contract. This social contract was not a literal meeting of two parties; Locke perceived the social contract as an ideological manifestation of what existed between governments and their citizens. Locke argued that governments were a contractual agreement between the people and their leaders. This unspoken agreement establishes that, as long as the government rules justly, the people will obey the government, and as long as the people obey the laws and act peaceably, the government will not use force against them. This concept also implies that any governmental right is entrusted by its citizens pending its proper use of them.

If these rights are entrusted by the citizens, then the citizens must have had these rights before the social contract. These rights can only have so many potential origins. An individualist would claim they came from oneself, but if they come from oneself, there must have been some time in which man formulated his own rights, which would pre-suppose the right to formulate one's own ideas. A collectivist would say that individual rights come from the society in which he finds himself; from whom does society receive its rights?

A group can only be formed of individuals, thus any rights of the group must be derived from those of its membership. As a Christian, I believe that rights are derived from God (because God assumes the role of prime mover). These rights are given to man in order to fulfill His purpose for our lives; without these rights we would be what C. S. Lewis refers to as automatons, because free will and personal rights are co-dependent.

Since we have established that rights are derived from God, we know that these rights must be in agreement with God's principles. A list of rights and assumed rights being daunting, I will address a few categories of rights: restrictive rights, active rights and expressive rights.

Restrictive rights are those which empower an individual to prevent or impeded the process of an action. This type of right may only be employed

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