Self-Evident
Weekly Watch
The United States has a born-on date — July 4, 1776. Even by themselves “July 4” and “1776” have a powerful impact on American minds. Together, that day and year designation carries an appeal for most of us even more powerful than the day and year of our own births. Many nations have existed across the millennia of human civilization, but by most measurements, the United States of America became the greatest. What made it different?
The nation’s birth is marked by the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. The second sentence of that document came to permeate the national identity like DNA permeates and replicates itself into every cell of a living organism. Though never fully achieved, the concept that “all men are created equal” became ingrained into every cell of the body politic, pushing its core message of liberty into every corner of the land.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Walter Isaacson recently released a book about those words called, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written. As a Christian, I see many greater sentences in the Bible. But even though this one doesn’t measure up to John 3:16 or Genesis 1:1, it is like them in that it is a theological statement. The Declaration’s second sentence makes God the nation’s foundation and its fulcrum. It says that God exists, He created us, and He endowed us with rights. Anyone who would steal these rights thus becomes, not just a thief, but a thief who steals from the Giver of rights — God.
To Abraham Lincoln, the sentence was foundational. He called it “that immortal emblem of Humanity.” He invoked its message in the Gettysburg Address. “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
The founders called this truth “self-evident.” According to Isaacson, “self-evident” means “discoverable by the mere operation of thought.” He likens it to saying, “All bachelors are unmarried.” You don’t have to do a survey of bachelors to see that the statement is true. It is “self-evident.”
But at first glance, it seems self-evident that we are not created equal. From the moment of conception, we have areas of inequality. Some have loving parents and some don’t. Some have a higher capacity for learning or for athleticism built into their genetic code. Externally, some are born into affluence and some into slavery — even today. How can we be “created equal”?
The Declaration explains “created equal” by saying that every person is endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights. We are intrinsically equal. We are equal in inherent worth. That concept only works as a theological statement. Equality of worth can only be bestowed by an Almighty Creator. He alone can endow every person with unalienable rights.
Our forefathers saw these things as “self-evident.” We were never a Christian nation in the sense of having a state religion. But we are a nation born out of trust in God. From that trust flows our understanding of the rights and dignity of every human being. That’s one of many reasons we must hold tight to our nation’s faith tradition.
Happy 250th birthday, USA!
