In the most famous passage of the Declaration of Independence, it is easy to see the connection between theism and human rights: “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.” As I explained in God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson and the Continental Congress could have chosen more generic ways to explain the basis of equal rights (“all men are by nature equal”) but they decided to employ active, theistic language instead.
Because they operated in such a broadly Christian mental world, we can interpret the Declaration’s language as rooted in Christianity, not just general theism. But there’s evidence that the beginnings of “human rights” advocacy really did have specific, deep Christian roots.
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