| | That quote has become controversial because Obama left off the phrase that says men's rights are endowed "by their creator."
Progressives take a secular position which lets them treat individual rights as definitions made by the government. For them, it doesn't have to do with religion. It is their political principle. Seeing government as the creator of individual rights makes it proper for the government to change, add or delete 'rights' as it wishes.
The religious right sees individual rights as a gift from God which makes them inalienable. They came from God, they say, so government can't change them.
I've always been frustrated that the religious crowd don't recognize that individual rights arise out our being human - regardless of any belief in where humans originally came from. Because that gives them common cause with Objectivists and Libertarians and with anyone else that recognizes that these natural rights are universal and come before government.
I now suspect that the religious right's position is more akin to holding rights hostage - kind of like them saying, "If you don't believe in God, then you can't claim inalienable rights." It's like holding out goodies to entice people to side with their religious beliefs. It has the ugly smell of one of an illogical argument that they feel is justified by the end. For each person where that is closer to their position than not... they have put their religion above the most fundamental of political principles and they should not be involved in politics. This is locus from which theocracy starts.
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... the shared values that we all hold so dear. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights, life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's what makes us unique. That's what makes us strong. The ability to recognize our common humanity.
