The Truth That Made Us Free

Most current discussion of political issues takes place against the background of the liberal history lesson—a series of statements and assumptions about the growth of human freedom which are part of the secular mythos of the modern era.

The object of the liberal history lesson is to show that religious devotion and personal liberty are incompatible. In proof of this, we are told that freedom existed in the ancient world under the Greeks and (less notably) the Romans, a happy experiment suppressed by the coming of Christianity. Through its insistence on other-worldly absolutes, Christian faith succeeded in immobilizing Western man for centuries until the Renaissance and Enlightenment restored the pagan zest for life and brought on the present epoch of liberty. From that point forward we have been engaged in an exciting surge of secular progress, the end of which is not yet in sight.

MS

About the Author

M. Stanton Evans

Most current discussion of political issues takes place against the background of the liberal history lesson—a series of statements and assumptions about the growth of human freedom which are part of the secular mythos of the modern era.

The object of the liberal history lesson is to show that religious devotion and personal liberty are incompatible. In proof of this, we are told that freedom existed in the ancient world under the Greeks and (less notably) the Romans, a happy experiment suppressed by the coming of Christianity. Through its insistence on other-worldly absolutes, Christian faith succeeded in immobilizing Western man for centuries until the Renaissance and Enlightenment restored the pagan zest for life and brought on the present epoch of liberty. From that point forward we have been engaged in an exciting surge of secular progress, the end of which is not yet in sight.