Consider how many of God’s greatest gifts to humanity flowed through the pipeline of Israel. Western civilization goes hand in hand with Judeo-Christian values. Many others also helped create the culture we now enjoy, including the Greeks and the Romans. But ultimately, the best part of the civilization built and bequeathed to us by our ancestors, rests on the shoulders of Abraham, Moses, and, most of all, Jesus.
The idea of human rights and the dignity of each person did not originate with the Declaration of Independence, the Renaissance, the Magna Carta, or the Cyrus Cylinder. The foundation of our rights comes from our ancestors’ belief in Genesis 1:27. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
All those who care about the kind of culture we live in — about our freedoms, our rights, and our amazing progress — should take this seriously. When we see each other as made-in-the-image-of-God special, it demands law and freedom, dignity and responsibility.
The thing we call “Western civilization” is not perfect. But from the standpoint of human rights and the prosperity of all, it has been a stunning success over that which went before it. When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke at the February 2026 Munich Security Conference, he said, “We are part of one civilization — Western civilization. We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share, forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen heir.”
At the same conference, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez belittled the Secretary’s speech as a “pure appeal to ‘Western culture.’” She used air quotes when she said “Western culture” as if it is either not real or not important. But that culture — that Judeo-Christian culture — serves as the protector of human rights and dignity.
And it comes from the Bible. Genesis 1:27 serves as the great dignifier and the great equalizer of humanity. We must treat one another as special because, though fallen from the state in which He made us, we each still carry the vestige of God’s image.
Jesus reinforced and magnified the idea of human consequence when He said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God created us in His image. And He loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son so that we could have everlasting life. Another Jew, the Apostle Paul, wrote in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Even those who do not believe these statements need to know that our rights and freedoms flow from them. Getting away from them is not progress for the West, but death. Humans are special because we were made by God in His own image and, though we are not as He originally made us, He created a way for each of us to return to Him.
Because this isn’t heaven, we can certainly improve Western civilization. But in the name of improvement, millions seem intent on its destruction. To make a broken car run again, it helps if the mechanic understands what made it run in the first place. To repair and improve Western civilization, we need to appreciate it, see its beauty, and understand the Source of that beauty.
