Western Civilization

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s Protestant rectitude informs his sense of America’s dutiful vocation in the world premised on: “Liberty, equality, and human dignity.”

Even if Christians will not acknowledge the West as their own, the West is inextricably woven into the church’s eternal story, with glorious chapters yet unwritten. Christian leaders, ecclesial and intellectual, should step forward into their responsibility for leadership and stewardship of the West. Contrary to despairing conventional wisdom, it’s not too late.

Truths about human rights have, indeed, been discovered in the West, but are not the property of the West and do not apply only in the West. But Trump implied that these were simply local, particular, and culturally-specific “values.”