Continuing our discussion of the health care system with my former professor and colleague, Dr. David Jones, Emeritus Professor of Theology and Ethics, Covenant Theological Seminary …

PROBE: Does the Bible teach that there are human rights? If so, what are they in broad categories?

Response: In the Bible, human rights that other human beings are obligated to recognize are coordinate with the responsibilities God has given us as bearers of his image. Of these, the primary responsibility is “to seek God” (Acts 17:27). This is the ground of freedom of religion, the right to worship and serve God according to one’s conscience. Other freedom rights follow: freedom to associate with others of like faith, freedom to practice one’s faith in word and deed. Beyond that, freedom to choose a vocation according to God-given gifts and opportunities, and freedom to exercise authority in divinely ordained social structures, particularly the family as the primary focus of the Fifth Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother.” This is the foundation of the notion of “institutional rights” that gets little attention in our society but is vital for image-bearers seeking to carry out the will of God in society.

Besides “freedom rights” there is the broad category of “protection rights”: the right to life, the right to the sanctity of marriage, the right to labor and its reward, the right to one’s reputation, all entailed in responsibilities given by God to human beings made in his image to know, love, and to serve him. A third broad category is “sustenance rights” by which access to the means of maintaining oneself and one’s family was guaranteed in the OT (e.g., Lev 19:9-10). Nondiscriminatory access to health care falls under this category.

PROBE: Does the Bible teach that health care is a human right?

Response: I think rather than approaching health care as a right to be demanded, the Bible teaches that health care is a blessing to be extended on the part of those who have the means and opportunity. This is a particularly Christian perspective as we sing every Christmas, “He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.”