The government does not own us. In this Harris is right. But we don’t own ourselves. Christians who believe the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) know that “You are not your own.” We were bought with a price—the very blood of Jesus. We must not do whatever we want but instead glorify God in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). We cannot defy the image of God in fellow human beings, even unborn ones, without defying God Himself.

In last Tuesday’s presidential debate, Kamala Harris said, “One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.”

She’s partly right. We don’t belong to the government as if it owned us and can command our every action. This is deeply ingrained in the American psyche and our representative form of government. But neither do we belong to ourselves—not in the radically individualistic, deterministic way Harris meant it.

From a civics perspective, we belong to the communities we join or are born into. We are members of families, volunteer organizations, and churches. Our memberships require things of us, and we are not free to neglect or defy those obligations without consequence. These community bonds make for rich cultural relationships. They knit us together in ways that enrich us even as we enrich others. All of this is free from government intrusion and control—and rightly so.

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