Rights Require Responsibility

Inherent in individual freedom and rights is the concept of individual responsibility.  In recent years the latter has been virtually ignored, especially in the United States, where the concept of rights is so heavily accented that little or no emphasis is given to individual responsibility.  Rarely does one hear people — for instance, teachers in schools — talk about the necessity of individual responsibility.  Yet people’s rights and freedom cannot be divorced from their responsibilities without eventually destroying both.

Alvin J. Schmidt, Under the Influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization, p. 260