The meaning of “All men are created equal” (Lewis Waha, 6/11/26, Center for Faith & Freedom)
A century later, Martin Luther King, Jr. again invoked that same truth. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, King expressed the hope that “this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed … that all men are created equal.”
There’s a solid throughline from the Declaration to the Gettysburg Address and to King’s speech. It’s America’s championing the God-given reality of human dignity. Whereas some dismiss dignity as sentimental fluff, and others count it a useful fiction, Americans understand human dignity as self-evident truth.
Christians in particular understand human dignity as due to all human beings bearing the image of God. It’s a natural inference from the Declaration of Independence to the book of Genesis. All men being “created equal” and “endowed by their Creator” evokes the moment when God said, “Let us make man in our image.”