Jonathan Leeman recently wrote a terrific article for Canon & Culture, a project by the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee, discussing what would be lost if Christianity was removed from the public square:
Suppose then that all of my moral principles and I really did pack up our desk, put our files into a box, and let the security guard escort us out of the building? John Lennon said to imagine a world with no religion. Let’s just try imagining a public square with no Christianity.
For starters, I guess I would have to take any concept of innate human equality and dignity with me. You didn’t get that from the Greeks, Romans, or pagan barbarians. You got that from me. I taught you to treat people as ends, not means. It would make me sad to take it back, but you say you don’t want Christian morality, so…I would have to take back your ideas about inherent rights, too.
I’m not saying non-Christian Founders and others haven’t talked about rights for a long time. But lose the concept of a good, personal, and—you won’t like this word—righteous God who endows human creatures with these things called rights; lose the idea of a God whose law makes respecting rights right, and you really have no foundation for them. Rights would come home with me, I’m afraid.
You can read the whole article here: http://www.canonandculture.com/christianity-packs-its-office-and-leaves-the-building/
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