Rights: How Far Will We Go?

I was reading about the recent religious freedom decisions of North Carolina and Mississippi along with Facebook comments regarding judging and accepting. Then my husband read me a news article about a nine year old girl in Utah "allegedly" being ganged raped and sodomized by four men while her mom was using meth in the garage. Allegedly telling her that they would kill her if she told anyone.

Something clicked in my brain about all this: how far do we keep allowing someone's rights to supercede another's?

First, let me explain that I do not like the too far right or too far left mentality. Yet, I understand the need for check and balance, the need for fairness, the need for understanding, but also the need for common sense. How far do we keep telling ourselves to stop judging and be more accepting? How far are we willing to go before WE draw that line?

Will it be our child or grandchild that's raped before we do? Will we finally be forced to accept others selling their children so they can have money? Will we be told it's people's "right" to seek sexual pleasure with our young? Will we be told to stop whining, stop judging, be more accepting? Will we be told that we're not being understanding or loving enough? What's anymore wrong in accepting this idealogy then anything else we once felt was morally wrong - regardless of religious beliefs?

Oh, but that's not the same thing!

Really? Why isn't it?

Try this one on. Think about what you find morally disgusting and then think about how you'd feel when you're told to suck it up buttercup. Will you? After all, maybe a rapist and murderer was born that way too. Maybe someone who abuses animals or other humans will use that idealogy against us: I was born this way, it's my right, it should be allowed!

We keep pushing this invisible morality line further and further away. What's fair and to who's reasoning? Will this be the next bridge we're asked to cross? How far will we go with allowing rights?