Are we wrong on rights?

At Christianity Today online, Ted Olsen examines the problems Westerners have in looking at the world through the lens of rights. A rights-centered approach to life, Olsen notes, can be at odds with a Christian approach:

The language of rights is the language of power. Thus we are tempted to claim individual rights for selfish purposes and to forget our obligations. It's disheartening to see that the majority of Christian political rhetoric is about guaranteeing our "rights" as Christians: the right to hire who we want, the right to pray where we want, the right to preach what we want, the right to sell (or not to sell) what we want.

Olsen makes another good point:

Biblical freedom is not the "rights" of American autonomy. Paul was rarely shy about listing off his many rights—as a Roman citizen, as a Christian, as an apostle—but he recognized that invoking them can hurt, especially when they lend themselves to selfishness. Paul was entitled to funds from the church in Corinth, but noted, "We have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. … Though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all."

This is the kind of "Christian right" that needs much more attention.

Amen. I personally think, however, that Olsen may give a little too much weight to the value of human rights in a Christian worldview. For a powerful explanation of how the culture of rights-based morality arose, and its relationship to a Christian worldview, see Alisdair MacIntyre's After Virtue.