Taking our rights and dignities for granted

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor recently lost all his royal titles, plus his home, resulting from scandal related to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Many asked why it took so long. But most people across history would instead have been amazed that it happened at all. How can a royal prince be punished for sexual exploitation? Is that not what the powerful do?

In his book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, Tom Holland illustrates how the example of Jesus as Savior turned voluntary innocent victim gradually but inexorably elevated across centuries those whom the ancient world disdained. Classical antiquity produced magnificent philosophy and architecture. But the strong incontestably exploited the weak. No rich Roman or Greek ever lost status by exploiting, or enslaving, anybody.

“Liberalism” has enacted an expectation of equal justice and social equality especially across the last several centuries, starting in the West. Everybody theoretically has equal rights, regardless of race, sex, wealth, ancestry, or religion. These assumptions are so pervasive that many in the West just assume they are intrinsic, natural, and universal. They fall upon all like an April rainstorm.

The secular left argues that this view of human dignity emerged only after the Enlightenment displaced Christendom. In an article called “The Golden Age of Humanity? We’re Living in It.” in The Free Press, Steven Pinker and Marian Tupy extol this view. They worry that Christendom’s superstitions and bigotries are now reviving. “Christian Nationalists,” post-liberals, and anti-Semites like Nick Fuentes, platformed by Tucker Carlson, want to overthrow liberalism in favor of legally privileged Christianity.

Pinker and Tupy rightly deride delusional nostalgia that exalts the past while ignoring the blessings of the present. Catholic integralists romanticize Medieval France. Christian Nationalists wanting Protestant confessional statism romanticize John Calvin’s Geneva. Many post-liberals romanticize the 1950s when supposedly every factory worker had a nice house with a well-dressed stay-at-home wife.

But Pinker and Tupy deeply undermine their argument by demonizing Christianity and effectively equating it with Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson, who, amid their enormities, profess to be Christian. Christianity is the father and ally of the “liberalism” of human rights and human dignity for all. Non-religious people benefit from this legacy and can (like Tom Holland) affirm it without subscribing to Christian doctrine.

Instead, Pinker and Tupy mock Christianity:

The historical and scientific evidence is unequivocal: There was no divine creation in six days, no Garden of Eden, no Adam and Eve, no talking snake, no forbidden fruit, no commandments handed down on Mount Sinai, no virgin birth, no resurrection, no divine providence, no miracles, no answered prayers, and no eternal life for the faithful.

Liberalism, in affirming religious freedom for all, rightly does not legally mandate Christian doctrine like the virgin birth. But liberalism’s belief in human dignity for all—with “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”—developed because many people across centuries, animated by transcendent beliefs that surpass “scientific evidence,” esteemed every human a creature of God. Pinker and Tupy declare that “meaning comes from reason and well-being, not scripture and salvation; from governance with the consent of the governed, not rule by kings and clergymen.” But most people are not professional intellectuals who subsist on “reason” alone. They crave spiritual purpose. And “consent of the governed” really makes no sense absent a spiritual understanding of who “the governed” are as creatures of God no less sacred than their rulers.

Pinker and Tupy note the “the 21st century, with all its woes, is a better time to live than any time before.” They are correct about wealth, health, basic rights, and security, especially those who live in the West, which was shaped by Christianity. Christianity’s central insight is that humanity is prone to cruel tribalism and self-privilege. So, what are the restraints? In 1952, President Harry Truman said:

The fundamental basis of this Nation's ideals was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. The fundamental basis of the Bill of Rights of our Constitution comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus, St. Matthew, Isaiah, and St. Paul.

Citing the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule, Truman said: “It is the only philosophy on which you can base a lasting government.”  

Christians should not want and do not need theocracy or legal privilege. We affirm all persons carry God’s image equally. And we believe, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” The restraints on human depravity that enable decent government, prosperity, and social harmony do not fall from the sky or grow from the ground. They ultimately flow from Mount Sinai and Golgotha. God is no respecter of persons, and that includes former princes.