"Equal in Dignity"

Perhaps the most famous sentence in U.S. history can be found in the Declaration of Independence. Many of you can recite it by heart.

“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.”

Freedom fighters throughout history have used these words to expand liberties in our country—from Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Martin Luther King Jr.

“Equal in dignity”

In reference to the groundbreaking words “all men are created equal,” Bishop Robert Barron recently shared these insights at Rededicate 250, a day of prayer and worship on the National Mall in Washington, DC:

“We hear those words so often we can miss their distinctiveness, even their strangeness. In what sense, precisely, are all men created equal? We’re plainly unequal in size, intelligence, creativity, beauty, energy, moral virtue, etc. … If you had suggested to Plato or Aristotle that all people are equal, they would have laughed at you. So what changed? … What the Founders knew from their Christian formation was that all people, despite their enormous inequalities are equally children of God, and therefore, equal in dignity. Take God out of the equation and equality quickly disappears, but when equality is grounded in a creator, it becomes enduring and universal.”

Rights given by God 

Unalienable rights are the same thing as natural rights—rights given not by government, nor by human beings, but by God. Therefore, the Founders believed that defending those rights was an act of justice—even righteousness—when they took up arms against Great Britain. 

• The Right to Life includes a person’s own body and health, as well as the right to protect oneself.  
• The Right to Liberty includes freedoms of thought and inquiry; religious belief, conscience, and expression; and choice of work and means of making a living. 
• The Pursuit of Happiness entails the right people have to shape their life course and make their own decisions about personal property, intellect, and duties unto God. (I have a lot more to say about this in a future email.) 

Forming a more perfect union 

I feel immensely grateful for how the Declaration of Independence led to the Constitution and Bill of Rights, paving the way for greater degrees of freedom to be embraced throughout history, not only for us but for the broader world. According to the sixth American President John Quincy Adams:

“[The declaration] demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest. It swept away all the rubbish of accumulated centuries of servitude. It announced in practical form to the world the transcendent truth of the unalienable sovereignty of the people.”

These ideals made a significant contribution to the abolition of chattel slavery on a global scale. They established democracy and representative government, which spread worldwide to create the most prosperous, civilized nations in history. They made way for women, minorities, and impoverished people to rise in society as voters, property owners, intellectuals, and leaders. They allowed for democratically minded people to grow in embracing fellow human beings of different backgrounds, fortunes, religions, and expressions of culture. 

No, we had not “arrived” in all these areas when the founders established our nation. But these men, imbued with the wisdom of scripture, collectively chose to seek God’s direction for our country instead of grasping for power. As a result, they created the first-ever form of government to honor and uphold the human rights God established in the Garden of Eden.

I believe the founding documents were inspired by the Holy Spirit simply because our founders were seeking His guidance. When they enshrined those rights into law, they made way for a country that could evolve to embrace a more excellent way of love, as described by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13: “[Love] does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 

Each successive generation chooses whether to build upon our founding ideals or destabilize them. Even then, the foundation has been strong enough to withstand some serious blows. With God’s help, our generation will build up instead of tear down the remarkable legacy we’ve been so privileged to inherit.

P.S. In this series of articles called “America@250” about our nation’s history and founding principles, I want to share some of our sources (since iVoterGuide is devoted to providing sources for candidate research). Key sources for this email include:

Declaration of Independence
“15 Great Speeches to Remind America What Independence Day is About,” Hillsdale College
“The Declaration of Independence and Women's Rights,” Carol Berkin, History Now (Issue 74), Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Bishop Robert Barron's full speech at Rededicate 250 on 5/17/26 
“The American Defense of Unalienable Rights in the Declaration,” American Heritage Education Foundation
“The Unalienable Right to Pursue Happiness in the Declaration,” American Heritage Education Foundation