The Declaration of Independence, revolutionary ideas, and changing systems

Last year was the 400th anniversary of African slaves arriving at Virginia’s Jamestown colony in 1619. The New York Times commemorated this event with a collection of essays called the 1619 Project. The 1619 Project proclaimed that 1619 was the year America was founded and not 1776. The senior editor justified this controversial narrative by explaining that the ideas in The Declaration of Independence were false because slavery still existed after the document was signed.

This year, another black man was killed by a white police officer. The tragedy brought worldwide protest, the destruction of Confederate monuments, national awareness of Juneteenth, debates about the historical hypocrisy of Independence Day, and whether or not July 4th represented white supremacy. Now, rejecting the 4th of July because The Declaration of Independence stated “all men are created equal” but black people were still enslaved is an understandable position.

The only problem is its hindsight and the revolutionary idea gets lost. Unfortunately, that happens to most revolutionary ideas. Let’s take Christianity, for example. For contemporary Christians the revolutionary idea behind the faith is God’s son died and resurrected to redeem humanity from original sin. But that wasn’t the revolutionary idea in antiquity…