Free Indeed

What would you say is the biggest difference between "The Western World" (by which I mean Australia, NZ, UK, USA, Canada, Western Europe, and similar countries and their cultures) and the rest of the world?

I think one answer would have to be freedom. The US in particular seems to make a big deal of individual freedom, but they are by no means alone in enjoying it. Most western cultures do, while many African, Asian, and East European countries do not enjoy as much freedom (I'm not sure about South America..)

By freedom I mean many things. Freedom to speak one's mind in public. Freedom to worship as one pleases. Freedom to choose how to uses one's time and property. Indeed, freedom to own property. It also includes the concept of a free market to buy and sell goods and services.

Freedom from poverty, freedom from ignorance, freedom from curable disease are also important parts of freedom and whiile they may not be as prevalent in the west as we might like, they are much more prevalent thant in the rest.

So where does this freedom come from? The answer would seem to be "From Christians".

Another key different between the west and the rest is that the west has a strong Christian heritage, though many in the west are trying to rebel from that heritage. The rest do not have a clear Christian history.

While it is without doubt that many horrific things have been done in the name of the Christian church (as can be said of almost any major institution) it is also clear from history that some very major freedoms have been fought for any maintained by Christians over the years.

Schooling, nursing, and charity are all movements that have largely been pioneered by Christians and address those last freedoms, from poverty, ignorance and curable diseases.

Slavery was abolished largely by the work of Christian mean. Freedom to worship as we choose, and to live as we choose has often by pushed primarily by Christians. While other faiths seem to like to control what others do (and admittedly, the organised church is guilty of this too), true Christians seek only freedom to worship, and aim to convert others by loving them, not forcing them.

This should be no surprise, as Jesus clearly preached a Gospel of freedom. In Luke 4:18 he reads from Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
      because he has anointed me
      to preach good news to the poor.
   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
      and recovery of sight for the blind,
   to release the oppressed,

He obviously came to free, importantly from sin, but also from other captivity.

In John 8 He says:

If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

and

I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 
Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs
to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The western world enjoys unprecedented freedom, thanks largely to the work of Christians. Yet many in the west reject Christianity out-of-hand and claim that it is of no value to modern life. I wonder how long their freedom will last.

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The book "How Christianity Changed the Word" by Alvin J. Schmidt, is a great resource for more details on this subject.