GLENN: We have a really inspiring update from the Nazarene Fund coming up in about 35 minutes that you don't want to miss. And your phone calls as well.
I want to go -- I want to go off the last phone call that we had because I think this is really important, to have this conversation. And that is, what is a right? What does it mean?
What does the Constitution and the Bill of Rights mean?
And the Bill of Rights and the constitutional amendments are really clear. And -- and most people -- most people don't think of it this way. But let's start with the 13th Amendment, Stu, that abolished slavery. Did it not?
STU: No, it did not.
GLENN: No. The 13th Amendment said all indentured servants and all slaves, no more -- no more slaves.
STU: It did kind of say that. However, it left an exception out.
GLENN: An exception?
STU: An exception. It can -- you are prohibited from putting someone in involuntarily servitude, or slavery, except for a punishment of -- for a crime. We've seen people on the side of the road collecting trash. You've seen this in every prison movie, going back 100 years.
GLENN: Right. Chain gangs.
STU: That is essentially involuntarily servitude.
GLENN: A form -- right. It's a form of slavery, if you will. You're a slave to the system. You will do and work as the system says. Because -- so the 13th Amendment says theres no slavery or involuntary servitude.
STU: Except --
GLENN: Unless --
GLENN: Yeah. Or except this.
STU: Uh-huh.
GLENN: Okay.
We all know the Third Amendment, right? Nobody knows the Third Amendment.
STU: It's my favorite amendment.
GLENN: It is mine too.
STU: I don't know why.
GLENN: You shall not be required to quarter soldiers in your home.
STU: That's what the amendment says, right?
GLENN: No, it doesn't.
It says unless --
STU: Unless it's wartime and they pass a law saying they can put quartered soldiers in your home.
GLENN: Right. So, in other words, you can say, you're not quartering these soldiers in my home. And you can hold up the Third Amendment and say, absolutely, that's against the Constitution. And say, no, actually we're at war. And here's the law that we passed.
Okay. So there are exceptions, and they're written into the Constitution.
Now, most of them don't have the unless. But there is only one that says, and there is no unless. There is no exception.
And you will not infringe on this. The Second Amendment is the strongest right. Because there is no unless. There is no ifs, ands, and buts.
STU: Yeah. Even if you look at the First Amendment, it just talks about Congress making laws. It prohibits Congress from making laws that will -- any law, respecting an establishment of a religion, right? But as we know, the states still had state -- in Massachusetts, had a state religion when this thing was passed. Right?
There are all sorts of exceptions. The second one is really clear. They seem to make that one really important. Hey, you can't infringe on this one.
GLENN: So the reason why you have to understand that this is a right -- this is a right and not a suggestion -- it is something that according to our system of government, you are born with certain rights.
And they can't ever be taken away from you, unless there's an exception. But there is one right that says, shall not be infringed.
So this is a God-given right that nobody can take away. If you understand that it is a right first, then you can understand and tie it into other things.
For instance, voting. Voting. Poll taxes. We all know that that was -- that was an infringement on a right.
Wait a minute. Because I'm African-American I have to pay a tax? Because I'm African-American, I have to take a test? No, I don't have a test that I have to take.
I have a right, unless it's taken away because I'm a criminal. And that's a new addition. So you have a right to vote. We all know, they don't spy on you as the default. Well, I mean, now they do, because we're violating the Fourth Amendment.
STU: Fourth.
GLENN: But we all know the government does not have a right to spy on you.
What they have is no right to spy on you, unless they can go to a court and get a warrant, because they've proved there's enough here that we need to follow and spy on you.
So there is an unless in that right. There isn't with voting. There isn't an unless.
STU: There's just age. Hmm.
GLENN: There isn't an unless in the Second Amendment.
You want all of your rights -- rights are yours by default. What people are talking about now is no. Well, let's make the default, you don't get one, unless you do this.
No, no, no. Rights mean, you have that, unless you do these things.
STU: Yeah. I mean, it goes -- fundamentally, it's -- the constitutionalist argument is you're innocent, unless you're proven guilty.
GLENN: Right.
STU: And the current way of looking at this from the left and others, is you're guilty, unless you can be proven innocent.
GLENN: Right.
STU: That's a huge, massive -- massive --
GLENN: It's a 180-degree different. That is no longer a right. That becomes then a privilege.
Now, with this, we have to talk about responsibilities.
If you are not responsible, you lose your rights. And, quite honestly, that's why we are losing rights now. Because we have shown ourselves irresponsible with those rights. Everybody always says, I have rights, you know. Yeah, yeah, I know. But you also, dude, have responsibilities.
