WHOSE BELIEFS AND VALUES?

WHOSE BELIEFS AND VALUES? whose beliefs and values should form the basis for legal and public policy decisions in our pluralistic society? What "world-view"–whose moral vision–ought to be taught in our public schools?
In the introduction of an old 1942 book, I ran across this jewel of a quote:
"The basic postulate of the democratic faith, " says Professor Ralph Gabriel in his objective study, The Course of American Democratic Thought, "affirmed that God, the creator of man, has also created a moral law for his government and has endowed him with a conscience with which to apprehend it. Underneath and supporting human society, as the basic rock supports the hills, is a moral order which is the abiding place of the eternal principles of truth and righteousness. "
From the point of view of the descriptive sciences, the first of the self-evident truths stated in our Declaration of Independence is not evident. It is simply not true that all men are created equal. But from the point of view of the law and love of God it is true, and that is the point of view that the authors of the Declaration took. They assumed the equality' of men in the light of "the laws of nature and of nature's God." That means their equality before His impartial justice and His fatherly love. Faith in God underlies and is distinctly avowed in the Declaration of Independence. So only does the Declaration make sense.
Part of the Introduction by Luther A. Weigle, Yale University Divinity School
of "GOD IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS" by W.S Fleming, D.D.