We read in the Declaration ‘ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Right, that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ Are the rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness self evident. They were not self evident to the pagan world before Christ.

I remember Pope Benedict saying that the very fact that we think they are self evident is evidence of the fact that we had the effects of a Christian world view. Most of the founding fathers of our country such as Washington, Jefferson were deist. Deism saw God as the great architect. Yes, God created the world but he was not a personal God. An example… Jefferson wrote a copy a copy of the Bible that eliminated anything supernatural to it.. Jesus was a great moral teacher. But the Truth remains that these founding fathers were still endued with a Christian world view.. even if they were trying to reject it.

An example from modern life might help. The term ‘Person’ What is a person came out of the debate in the fourth century when the Church was trying to figure out how God can be Three Persons in one One God. Before this the idea of a unique person was not know in the pre Christian world. The idea of a single person was not understood or know till this debate about Three unique persons in One God. So while we might think the term ‘person is self evident’ it was not until the advent of Christianity.

That being said.. when the founding fathers state in the Declaration that these truths are self evident, it was because the very faith that they were in many cases rejecting still formed the basis of their political thought. Now you ask why is this important?

First of all.. the recent Supreme Court decision undoing Roe.. is showing the world that we are in fact in a post Christian world. That the supposedly self evident truths are not self evident. They were not self evident before Christianity and in our world that has moved from Christianity they are no longer self evident. This means that the response of two very different groups either joy or fury presuppose a world view formed by Christianity. This means that the for a strong minority and maybe soon a majority of American what was seen as self evident truths are not self evident. They were not self evident to a pre Christian world and they are not self evident to a post Christian world. So I contend that the Supreme Court decision is showing that we live in fact in a post Christian world. What this means I am not sure, and I would contend neither are you sure… but the fact remains what was self evident for our ancestors is no longer self evident to many in the streets arguing for the right to abortion.

It is my accretion that the we own a debt of gratitude to Christianity to the very forming of the Declaration of Independence.. and the very people who are arguing that we have a right to abortion are in fact using language given them from Christianity about the rights and dignity of the human person. But as we move father away from the fumes of Christianity we might discover that the political powers that be don’t give a ‘…’ to your rights to protest..