What do you do with the creed you didn't live up to?

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

The Declaration of Independence statement that all men are created equal is something Chuck Colson called the American Creed, which often elicits a response.

Since slaves were treated as anything but equal, was this creed a lie?

Many signers of the Declaration were abolitionists who compromised on that slavery issue so that the hope

of independence would not end before it started. Without excusing the injustice of slavery,

it's notable that Thomas Jefferson originally included a condemnation of slavery in the Declaration.

He was forced to remove it due to opposition from the southern colonies. And it takes time for an

idea to take root, to spread,

to move from abstract principle to practical implementation. Jefferson was himself a slaveholder,

and though in principle he opposed slavery, he failed to make Monticello work without slaves.

The existence of slavery was an assumed thing at the time. Many could not imagine a world without it. They should have, but they didn't. In other words,

the American creed is an aspiration, which neither our founders nor we have perfectly achieved.

But rather than dismiss it as hypocrisy, we should commit ourselves again to work toward it.

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