Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look, and an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Along with the well-deserved patriotic pride, the celebration of America's 250th anniversary,

also requires a bit of introspection, especially about America's beginnings and the issue of slavery.

Many of the same founding fathers who inspired the cause of liberty, and so many kept other people in chains. However, there's one founding father who boldly opposed slavery. His name was

Dr. Benjamin Rush, and a new documentary entitled Rush, the American Revolution's indispensable doctor,

author and historian Dr. Joseph LaCante, describes the work and life of this remarkable man.

In the process, Laconte brings clarity to the complications and the contradictions of the American

story. Dr. Benjamin Rush was one of 55 signers of the Declaration

of Independence. He graduated from college at age 15, had his own practice as a physician by

age 24. He served as an army doctor in the New American Military, was a chemistry professor

who wrote the first chemistry textbook published in America, and he also authored many treatises on medical education.

He was also a social reformer.

It's a key influence on Thomas Payne,

the author of the Vital Booklet Common Sense.

And unlike many of the other founders,

Rush believed that the claim to God-given rights

had to apply to everyone, including slaves.

Rush encouraged revolutionary thinking against British rule while also challenging slavery.

As Dr. Lacanche described it, and I quote,

Rush rejects the assumption that Africans are an inferior race.

He cites evidence of their ingenuity and humanity as proof that

...