‘Rights Come From God’: Dismantling The Dangerous Lie of Personal Autonomy

Every day, many in our culture champion homosexuality and transgenderism, the murder of babies in the womb, and even the right of suffering people to take their own lives through assisted suicide. A root of these views is the idea that we are our own masters—that, in rebellion against the Word of God, we can define who we are and write out the trajectory of our own lives.

In the past, people generally understood that human autonomy is limited: There are fixed truths woven into the universe, and we have natural obligations to others.

John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, says our culture’s view of personal autonomy is no longer just a moral issue, but an issue of identity. “Today, it’s not, ‘I can behave in whatever way I want,’” he says. “It’s ‘I am whoever I think I am.’”