Rights of the Individual vs Community

In light of recent conversations related to various rights being questioned as being in the community's best interest, I will make a brief comment on the veracity of the individual over the community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer brings critical thinking forward for us today. Claiming one's rights is counter to the self-renunciation we find in the Sermon on the Mount (Discipleship) . . . but we are to fight for the rights of others (Ethics), which – rather than renunciation – is a form of transforming initiative. I think that's what America's founders had in mind with the Bill of Rights as they set forth protection from an oppressive government – in order to provide for free personal and corporate (community) responsibility. That individuals would act with respect toward the benefit of community was part of their ethic . . . an ethic which has been tempered in our post-modernism. (I will preemptively add here related to the slavery issue: some Founders were proactive for the inclusion of extending rights to all, while others surmised that it would cease of its own accord given time and economics). The question remains for us: how to balance the rights of the individual and community. Bonhoeffer’s writings may provide some clues. From “Life Together” to “Letters and Papers from Prison” we glimpse the possibilities of community.