Christians promoted liberty and equality in America the most.

Despite being a popular critique of Christianity in America, the idea that Christianity has been a bastion of oppression and intolerance is inaccurate and often ignorant. In his new book Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land, historian Mark David Hall offers a concise corrective to this flawed narrative.

Far from being agents of oppression and anti-intellectualism, Christians have been the bedrock of social activism advancing liberty and equality, as well as promoting education reform, increasing literacy, and publishing newspapers and magazines. This hostility and mockery towards Christianity are unwarranted and are one of the pillars of the current anti-American ideology that permeates universities and the governing spirit of our ruling elite.

“It is simply false to claim that liberty and equality have been advanced primarily when America’s leaders embrace progressive manifestations of religion or reject faith altogether.”

Looking at the Puritans, the American Revolution, evangelical social reform prior to the Civil War, and contemporary debates over religious liberty, Hall reveals what used to be well-known: Christianity has been the heart of true social progress and explosive advancements in human liberty, equality, and democratic government.

Puritans and Foundations of Liberty

The Puritans were among the most educated people of their time, established our most venerable institutions of higher education, promoted the advancement and discoveries of Enlightenment science, vigorously advocated for public literacy, and enjoyed a good laugh, beer, and sex. They created political institutions that were more democratic than any the world had ever seen, and they strictly limited civil leaders by law.

When traveling through the lands the Puritans helped to build in the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville remarked, “Puritanism was not merely a religious doctrine,