In the call for papers for our upcoming Council, we did not mention the topic of civil liberties explicitly. However, it is one that is implied in some of the other topics mentioned: forms of government, economic views, cultural interaction, etc. Classical Roman Catholicism, if I understand it correctly, does not advocate for the civil liberties of individuals like we do as a general course in the United States. In fact, in 1864, Pope Pius IX issued his infamous Syllabus of Errors. In this list of heresies, he included the belief in separation of Church and State as one of the false teachings. Most scholars believe he is probably assessing the first amendment to the U. S. Constitution. Most of those (not all) who have embraced dispensationalism come from groups that have abandoned any Church State notion. This is only one aspect of how civil liberties come into our theological discussions. In the midst of lockdowns due to the coronavirus, maybe it would be timely to address the issue of the extent and/or limits of civil liberties from a dispensational point of view at our upcoming conference.
