Christianity that creates and sustains secularity

It is only Christianity that creates and sustains secularity. Christianity says that everybody is worth, that the smallest voice has the same value as the loudest, and that the mighty can be wrong and the and it says that no one is powerless, for everyone can appeal over the heads of their rulers to God, and God will hear them and save them. The gospel extends the franchise to everyone. Each person is able to judge between good and bad, and to determine their own course through their circumstances, and think their own thoughts.

Every Christian can say, ‘He that is mighty hath magnified me… he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath pulled down the mighty from their seats and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away.’

It is not that this political culture is Christian or that it is secular and therefore not Christian. It is secular because it is Christian. It is Christian and therefore is it secular. Secular and Christian are two sides of one coin, or two ways of looking at the same political culture. Christianity is a faith, which means that you are entirely at liberty not to accept it. You can believe this faith, then disbelieve it and renounce it, and then you can change your mind again. This is a consensual commitment. You have a view, you have a mind of your own. We can point out that your view may mature through abandoning certain commitments and by sticking to certain other commitments. You have a mind of your own and we may all encourage one another to deepen this mind and our ability to judge well. Christianity exalts the decision-making, self-determining dignity of each and every individual. It does so by pointing them to certain canons of reason that have evolved through long public discussion of this faith. Freedom of conscience means that I concede that you have a mind of your own, you are an independent thinking creature, and that you probably to pursue your own good better than I, for you are the best judge of what is good for you, and that means that you may also be just as good a judge as I am of what else is good for the larger community we belong to. I am obliged to admit that you are expert in areas I am not, and that in large areas of life your views are at least as good as mine.