Martin Luther King, Jr. said that the ideals of the Declaration of Independence were not exclusivist, but a “promissory note” for marginalized communities — the Declaration was right all along that all people are created equal and “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” Others disagree, such as The New York Times’ controversial 1619 Project that used a neo-Marxist lens to rewrite U.S. history as founded with the introduction of slave labor in Virginia.
Professor Mark David Hall will examine these claims, including the founders’ opposition to slavery, abolitionists’ attempts to abolish this evil institution, and the Civil Rights Movements’ quest to secure legal rights for all citizens. As America commemorates its 250th birthday, are the critiques of Marxist socialism and communism relevant for understanding America’s founding and the movement toward liberty and equality? What is the evidence that these ideologies have made the lives of people better in places such as North Korea, Cuba, or the former Soviet Union?
The United States is not perfect, but Americans are among the most free and prosperous people on earth because the nation was founded upon true ideals rather than false ideologies.
About the speaker:
Mark David Hall joined the faculty of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University in 2023. He is one of the most outstanding scholars of early America, whose many distinguished publications have argued persuasively for the crucial importance of Christianity in the flourishing of America’s experiment in ordered liberty. He is also widely regarded as a leading student of religious liberty and church-state relations in America. Hall has served or is serving as an expert witness for the U.S. Department of Justice, the State of Arkansas, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Institute for Justice. Prior to Regent, he was the Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Politics at George Fox University.
Dr. Hall earned a B.A. in Political Science from Wheaton College (IL) and a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia. Hall’s primary research and writing interests include American political theory, the relationship between religion and politics, and religious liberty/church-state relations.
Dr. Hall has written, edited, or co-edited a dozen books, including Who’s Afraid of Christian Nationalism: Why Christian Nationalism is Not an Existential Threat to America or the Church (Fidelis Books, forthcoming); Proclaim Liberty Through All the Land: How Christianity Has Advanced Freedom and Equality for All Americans (Fidelis, 2023); Did America Have a Christian Founding?: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth (Nelson Books, 2019); Great Christian Jurists in American History (Cambridge University Press, 2019); Faith and the Founders of the American Republic (Oxford University Press, 2014); and Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic (Oxford University Press, 2013). He has also penned more than 150 book chapters, journal articles, reviews, and other pieces.
