"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . ." "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?"
Those are conflicting points of view. Perhaps when everyone in the room is from the same social order then "all men are created equal"; yet the world at large does not work that way. Even the slaves of Jefferson and Washington would have probably questioned the statement had they been allowed the same voice that their owners were rebelling to obtain.
Thus we come into life on "unequal footing". The text then teaches that we cannot work our way into a better place. No pulling oneself up by the bootstraps. We can obtain a right standing with our Creator only by his grace and our faith in the Incarnation.
How un-American is this passage. What a stumbling block it is to our way of thinking. Also how amazing that tomorrow is July 4. Maybe the stumbling block was laid in Zion but we can still trip over it in Texas.
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