It is no coincidence that the greatest freedom the world has ever seen sprang forth first in the Christian West, and that it has run wider and deeper than in any other part of the world.
This video from the Acton Institute in their "Birth of Freedom" series points out this connection, and in a brief nutshell, looks at why Christianity and human freedom are connected.
Christianity recognizes that God created humans to be free, and that God gave humans a free will. We can choose this or that, and we can choose both good and evil; even the all-powerful God doesn't force us to choose His way.
Christianity also recognizes that all humans are created in the image of God, and therefore have an innate value and dignity. What's more, if God allows us the freedom to make choices, then why should men deny that freedom to one another, so long as that freedom doesn't infringe on the rights of another?
In the secularization of our culture for the past 50 years or so, sight of this truth has been lost. But the Acton Institute is trying to uncover this and reintroduce it to society.
For if we forget the source and reason for our freedoms, all of our freedoms are in jeopardy.
From the Acton Institute about the video:
In the sixth Birth of Freedom video short, William B. Allen addresses the question, "What was Christianity's Role in the rise of the idea of human equality?" In his discussion, which traces the Judeo-Christian origins of a "universal perspective," he concludes that "what informs the spirit of Republicanism in the modern era, is this long development, this slow working-out of a specific revelation from God that leads human beings into the discovery of the fullness of their personality in the recognition of their universal status."
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