Christianity and Freedom

It’s Holy Week, so some reflections on the relationship between Christianity, capitalism, and democracy.

This blog is developing a picture of the dominant American elite—liberal, well-to-do, roughly 1/5th of the population, in control of the Democratic party, the media, the public bureaucracies, entertainment and the arts, academia, the Third Sector, and influential in big business and liberal, “mainstream” religion. Yet while religion can be liberal, liberals, by and large, aren’t practicing Christians. Liberals live comfortably in our increasingly secular world, often finding life's meaning in a New Age spirituality separated from life’s daily struggles.

The Greco-Roman gods were human in form but capable of extraordinary achievements. TIME typically honors one modern god a week on its cover. The liberal elite, in the spirit of noblesse oblige, takes seriously its responsibility to do God’s work on Earth (think Bono in Africa) in contrast, most particularly, to profit-seeking capitalists and bigoted Christian fundamentalists.

Christianity, in my eyes, is about faith, a personal relationship between each believer and God. We are humbled by the knowledge that God’s grace—knowledge brought to us through Christ, a poor Jewish carpenter—frees us to move beyond ourselves into a larger community of believers that puts faith into action. A personal relationship with God is important because it places every individual on an equal footing, encouraging each to contribute to the community’s political, economic, and/or spiritual development.

Christianity, in its early years, in the 16th Century of Martin Luther (see post, “Martin Luther at 500”), and today, isn't top-down, but is instead about equality before God leading to free will. By honoring each person as a unique creature of God, and emphasizing each person's direct, private relationship to God, Christianity encourages free individuals to lead productive lives. And it's freedom that makes capitalism and democracy work.