In 1776, Thomas Jefferson penned one of the most revolutionary thoughts in all of history when he wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Today, this fundamental tenet of American democracy is being put to the test in every corner of the world.

Today, there are tens of millions of slaves—tens of millions of men, women, and children who are owned by other people. They are the faces of the booming sex tourism industry in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. They are the faces of indentured servitude in India and Central America.

Today, there are scores of victims of war, genocide, terrorism, and ethnic cleansing. They are the faces of systematic killings in Darfur, Rwanda, Kosovo, and the list goes on. They are the faces of every Iraqi and Afghan.

Today, there are millions of victims of AIDS. There are additional millions of casualties related to preventable diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and tuberculosis.

There are millions, if not billions, of souls still waiting to claim their birthrights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. From the gulags of North Korea to the poppy fields of Afghanistan; from the brothels in Thailand to the sweatshops of India; from refugee camps in the Congo to the refugee camps in the West Bank; from the war fronts in Fallujah to the blood diamond fields of Sierra Leone; from one decrepit slum to another; the eyes of the world are on the American people as never before. They look to the United States of America, the stalwart of democracy and liberty to stand up, speak up, and act on behalf of all mankind.

But more than the American government, the eyes of the world are on the Church. The words of Martin Luther King Jr. are as poignant today as it was during the height of the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. In “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he writes:

There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period when the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days, the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But they went on with the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.

Things are different now. The contemporary church is often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning in the twentieth century. I am meeting young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust.

So the choice remains. Will the people of God step up to the plate and confirm the self-evidenced truths that all are created equal in the image of God? Or will they cower away and deny their neighbors of the very rights they enjoy for themselves?

I, for one, cannot choose to shrink away from this fight. My conscience will not allow me. I have lived through failing public school systems. I have heard the cries of the orphaned and the abandoned. I have seen leprosy and cancer and AIDS eat away at life. I have smelled the poverty of places with no clean water and no sanitation. I have touched the hands of survivors of war, torture, and genocide.

I cannot turn my ahead away from the realities of injustice. Each of the victims is not just a mere statistic. Each of them are people, equally created by God and equally precious in His sight.

I cannot simply ignore the issues. Can you?