Religious freedom is the \u201cfirst freedom.\u201d You probably think that\u2019s another way of saying that it\u2019s the most important freedom. Well, it is. But it\u2019s also the source of all of our freedoms.<\/p>\n
In a fantastic address at Cedarville University in Ohio, John quoted the French philosopher Luc Ferry, an atheist, who acknowledged the West\u2019s debt to Christianity. Ferry wrote that \u201cChristianity was to introduce the notion that humanity was fundamentally identical, that men were equal in dignity \u2014 an unprecedented idea at the time, and one to which our world owes its entire democratic inheritance.\u201d But Christianity\u2019s contribution to our \u201cdemocratic inheritance\u201d was not limited to its ideas about human equality. It was Christianity that taught the West that there are limits to the state\u2019s power and it made our ideas about human freedom possible.<\/p>\n
The story that sums up this contribution is what German historians call the \u201cwalk to Canossa.\u201d In 1077, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV traveled from Speyer, Germany, to Canossa Castle in Northern Italy. The purpose of his \u201cwalk\u201d was to ask Pope Gregory VII to lift his decree of excommunication against Henry. The reason for the decree was an issue that modern minds probably, but wrongly, find arcane: investiture, that is, who gets to select the bishops in a given territory, the Crown or the Church?<\/p>\n
Pope Gregory insisted that it was the Church. Henry had insisted it was the Crown, or as we would put it, the State. As Wikipedia puts it, Henry came to realize that his position was \u201cprecarious.\u201d So he sought an audience with the Pope. Upon entering Italy he put on a hairshirt and may have walked much of the way as a sign of penitence.<\/p>\n
As if to show Henry who was the boss, the Pope kept him waiting three days while a blizzard raged, which is why Italians, who seldom miss an opportunity to tweak the Germans, call it the \u201chumiliation at Canossa.\u201d<\/p>\n
The significance of this story goes far beyond medieval power politics. In his book, \u201cThe Origins of Political Order,\u201d political scientist Francis Fukuyama argues that, at Canossa, the West gained the idea of an autonomous sphere of authority that could check a ruler\u2019s ambitions.<\/p>\n
Stated differently, without Canossa there is no Magna Carta, no parliaments, and thus, no freedom as we understand that word in the West.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, this sphere of authority leaned heavily on law as a source of legitimacy. This, Fukuyama argues, was crucial in the development of the rule of law in the West. When secular authorities enacted their own laws and established institutions, they were imitating the Church.<\/p>\n
And all of this was only possible because the Church insisted that secular rulers had no authority in the spiritual realm.<\/p>\n
A thousand-plus years later, secular rulers are once again trying to assert their authority over spiritual matters: From the HHS mandate to whether bakers have to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding ceremony.<\/p>\n
Folks, it\u2019s up to us to remind our neighbors that a state that can trample religious freedom is strong enough to put all of our freedoms at risk.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2014 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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